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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 



ALTEMUS' YOUNG PEOPLE'S LIBRARY,^^^ .^. 



CHRISTOPHER 
COLUMBUS 



AND THE 



Discovery of America 

COMPILED FROM AUTHORITATIVE SOURCES 



WITH 80 ILLUSTRATIONS *^ t H'X ** ^ 



PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY ALTEMUS 

1896 



IN UNIFORM STYLE 



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the pilgrim s progress 

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CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 

MOTHER goose's RHYMES, JINGLES AND TALES 

EXPLORATION AND ADVENTURE IN THE FROZEN SEAS 

THE STORY OF DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION IN AFRICA 

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PREFACE. 

THERE are few of the great personages in history who 
have been more talked about and written about than 
Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of America. 
We are apt to look upon Columbus as a person who knew 
that there existed a great undiscovered continent, and who 
made his way directly to the discovery of that continent. 
Whereas, the dream of Columbus's life was to make his way 
by an unknown route to what was considered to be known. 

The whole life of Columbus shows how rarely men of the 
greatest insight and foresight, and also of the greatest perse- 

5 



6 PREFACE. 

verance, attain the exact ends they aim at. He did not find 
the regions of the Khan ; but he brought into relations the 
New World and the Old. 

It is impossible to read without the deepest interest the 
account from day to day of his voyage. The first point of 
land that Columbus saw, and landed at, is as nearly as possible 
the central point of what must once have been the United 
Continent of North and South America. The least change 
of circumstance might have made an immense difference in 
the result. The going to sleep of the helmsman, the unship- 
ping of the rudder of the Finzon, the slightest mistake in 
taking an observation, might have made, and probably did 
make, considerable change in the event. During the first 
voyage of Columbus, the gentlest breeze carried with it the 
destinies of future empires. 

Had some breeze carried Columbus northwards, it would 
not have been left for the English, more than a century 
afterwards, to found those Colonies which have proved to be 
the seeds of the greatest nation that the world is likely to 
behold. 

It was, humanly speaking, singularly unfortunate for 
Spanish dominion in America, that the earliest discoveries 
were those of the West India Islands. A number of gov- 
ernors introduced confusion, feebleness, and want of system, 



PREFACE, 7 

into Colonial government. The numbers, comparatively few, 
of the original inhabitants of each island, were rapidly 
removed from the scene of action; and the Spaniards lacked, 
at the beginning, that compressing force which would have 
been found in the existence of a body of natives who could 
not have been removed by the outrages of Spanish cruelty. 

The Monarchs of Spain, too, would have been compelled 
to treat their new discoveries and conquests more seriously. 
To have held the country at all they must have held it well. 
It would not have been Ojedas, Bobadillas and Ovandos who 
could have been employed to govern, discover, conquer, 
colonize, and ruin by their folly the Spanish possessions in the 
Indies. The work of discovery and conquest begun by 
Columbus must then have been intrusted to men like Cortes, 
the Pizarros, a Vasco de Nunez ; and a colony or a kingdom 
founded by any of these men might well have remained a 
great colony, or a great kingdom to the present day. 

The pictures found herein will throw light on the page in 
more ways than one. They have been taken from '' De Bry's 
America" and ^'Herrara's West Indies," published in the 
year 1730 by authority of the King of Spain. 





COLUMBUS IN HIS CARAVEL. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 




CHAPTER I. 

THE NEW WORLD. 

MERICA was discovered by Christopher 
Columbus on October 12, 1492. There 
are traditions of much eariier discov- 
eries. The Northmen, inhabitants of 
Sweden and Norway, claim to have landed on 
the Western Continent, about the year 1000. 
These wandering Northmen had reached the 
shores of America first in the vicinity of Nan- 
tucket, and had given the name of Vinland to the 
region extending from beyond Boston to the south 
of New York. But the memory of these voyages 
seems totally to have passed away, or the lands 
were confounded with Greenland, to which the 
Pope had sent a bishop in 1448. This discovery 
cannot diminish the claims of Columbus. 

These old Northmen made their home upon 
the sea, and lived by plundering from their neigh- 
bors. The early Britons suffered terribly from 
their raids. ''Foes are they," sang an old Eng- 
lish poet, ''fierce beyond all other foes; cunning 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 



as they are fierce ; the sea is their school of war, 
and the storm their friend ; they are the sea- 
wolves that live upon the pillage of the world." 




A NORSE SHIP OF THE TENTH CENTURY. 

The honor of discovering America, a few years 
before the first voyage of Columbus, has been 
claimed by the Spaniards for one of their country- 




THE NORTHMEN AND THEIR SHIPS. 



II 



12 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

men, by the Germans for one of theirs, by the 
Venetians, the Portuguese, and the Poles ; but 
on grounds the most vague and unsatisfactory. 

Even allowing these discoveries to have taken 
place it does not detract from the glory of Colum- 
bus as the man who first really united America 
and Europe. He was unaware of any previous 
voyages to this quarter of the globe, and his 
wonderful adventure has led to the most import- 
ant results ; while the others, granting them to 
have occurred, have been barren of results. 

The discovery of America stirred Europe to its 
deepest foundations. All classes of men were 
affected. The people went wild at once with a 
lust of gold, and a love of adventure. 

Even the poor honor of giving his name to the 
Continent he discovered was curiously filched 
from him. Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian navi- 
gator, had made the acquaintance of Columbus 
on his return from one of his early voyages. He 
went out with Ojeda, in his voyage in 1500, and 
explored several hundred miles of the coast of 
South America. He wrote an account of this 
voyage, and of a subsequent one to Brazil, which 
were read before some noble families in Italy. A 
German geographer on the strength of these 
letters, in 1507, called the new Qovi^xn^^v^l America 
Terra, and hence our name of America. 



THE NEW WORLD. 



13 



The name of Columbus was written Columbo, 
in Italian. He Latinized his name as was the cus- 
tom in those days when Latin was the language 
of learned correspondence. In Spanish history 
he is known 
as Christoval 
Colon. 

Columbus 
never knew 
the nature of 
his own dis- 
covery. He 
died in the be- 
lief that it was 
some part of 
Asia; and Ves- 
puccci held the 
same idea. If 
Columbus fail- 
ed in his at- 
tempts to 
reach India by sailing to the west, Vasco de Gama 
succeeded by sailing to the south. 




AMERIGO VESPUCCI. 



CHAPTER II. 

FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 

Modern familiarity with navigation renders it 
difficult for us to properly appreciate the great- 
ness of the enterprise which was undertaken by 
the discoverers of the New World. Seen by the 
light of science and of experience, the ocean, if 
it had some real terrors, had no imaginary ones. 
It was different in the fifteenth century. Geo- 
graphical knowledge was but just awaking, after 
ages of slumber ; and throughout those ages the 
wildest dreams had mingled fiction with fact. 
The half-decked vessels that crept along the 
Mediterranean shores were but ill-fitted to bear 
the brunt of the furious waves of the Atlantic. 
The use of the compass had scarcely become 
known to navigators; and who could tell, it was 
objected, that a ship which might succeed in sail- 
ing down the waste of waters would ever be able 
to return, for would not the voyage home be a 
steady journey up a mountain of sea ? 

But the same traditions that set forth the diffi- 
culties of reaching the unknown countries, prom- 

14 



FIFTEENTH CENTUR V DISCO VERIES, 1 5 

ised a splendid reward to the successful voyager. 
Rivers rolling down golden sand, mountains shin- 
ing with priceless gems, forests fragrant with rich 
spices were among the solid advantages to be 
expected as a result of the enterprise. ** Our 




CARAVEL BEFORE THE WIND. 



quest there," says one of the old historians, **is 
not for the vulgar products of Europe." And there 
was another object besides gain, which was in the 
minds of all the early explorers, namely, the 
spread of the Christian religion. 



1 6 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

The known world in the time of Prince Henry 
of Portugal was a very small one indeed. With 
the map before us we can see how small was our 
infant world. First take away those two conti- 
nents (each much larger than a Europe), to the 
far west. Then cancel the big island on the ex- 
treme south-east. Then turn to Africa. Instead 
of the form which it now presents, make a scim- 
iter shape of it by running a slightly curved line 
from Jaba on the eastern side to Cape Nam on 
the western. Declare all below that line unknown. 
''Where you know nothing, place terrors," was 
the rule of the early geographers. 

Now looking at the map, we can hardly help 
thinking to ourselves with a smile, what a small 
space the known history of the world has been 
done in, up to the last 400 years. The idea of the 
universal dominion of Rome shrinks a little. 

Prince Henry was born in Portugal, in 1394. 
He was with his father at the capture of Centa, 
in the year 141 5. This town, which lies opposite 
to Gibraltar, was of great magnificence, and one 
of the chief marts in that age for the products of 
the eastern world. It was here that Portugal 
first planted a firm foot in Africa ; and the date 
to this town's capture may be taken as the time 
when Prince Henry began to plan further and far 
greater conquests. He was very learned, for 



FIFTEENTH CENTUR V DISCO VERIES. 1 7 



that age of the world, and learned from the Moors 
of Morocco such knowledge as could be gather- 
ed of the re- 
mote districts of 
Africa. 
The 
having 

idea in his mind 
that Africa did 
not end at Cape 
Nam, never rest- 
ed until he had 



Prince 
got the 




made known that quarter of the world to his 
own. He lived at Sagres, where for many a year 



1 8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

he could watch for the white sails bringing back 
his captains to tell him of new countries and new 
men. 

For a long time Cape Bojador (meaning out- 
stretcher), which is 200 miles south of Cape Nam, 
was the extreme limit of discovery. Beyond this 
Cape, the mariners reported, '' were no people 
whatever; the lands bare, no water, no trees, or 
grass on it ; the sea is shallow, and the currents 
fierce ; and the ship which passes that cape will 
never return." 

For twelve years the Prince kept sending out 
ships and men ; with little approval from his 
people. The captains came back with no good 
tidings ; still he would not give up. At last one 
of his captains passed the dreaded Cape Bojador, 
and brought back the news that the soil appeared 
to him unworked and fruitful ; and like a prudent 
man he brought home a barrel of the new-found 
earth, and some plants. The Prince rejoiced to 
see them and gave thanks to God. 

Stormy times now came upon Portugal, and the 
Prince had to give his attention to home matters 
for awhile. In 1441 a voyage was planned which 
went 1 50 miles below Bojador. The captain seized 
some Moors, to take home, as he said ** some of 
the language of their country." The Prince now 
applied to the Pope to grant Portugal all the 



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 19 



lands conquered from Bojador to the 
The Pope 



Indies. 



this 
al- 



orranted 
request 
though after- 
wards as we 
shall see, the 
Spanish dis- 
coveries of 
Columbus 
made it nec- 
essary that 
the terms of 
thegranthad 
should be 
modified. 

In 1444 a 
company 
was formed 
for the pur- 
p o s e of 
coasting 
along Africa; 
they to pay 
to Portugal 
a portion of 
any gains 
they might 



ScLgreS' 
Cihrdtar 



Madcin 

Argm 
R.VOro 

C.Bld'nJCo' 




20 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

make. Thus began the slave trade. Before this 
time the slave had been the captive of war, who 
lived with his conqueror, and toiled on his lands. 
Now the slave became the object of war. He 
was to be sought for, to be hunted out, to be 
produced and this change gave rise to a new 
branch of commerce. 

In 1454, a young Venetian named Mosto was 
detained by bad winds at Cape St. Vincent. 
Prince Henry told him of the things he had done, 
showed him samples of the goods that came from 
the newly discovered lands ; and finally induced 
him to take charge of a vessel. From him we 
learn that Arguim was the headquarters of the 
trade. There came all kinds of goods to be ex- 
changed for gold and slaves. Barbary horses 
were taken to the negro country, and traded with 
the chiefs for slaves, eighteen men being bartered 
for one horse. Every year between 700 to 800 
slaves are sent from here to Portugal. 

Mosto sailed down to Jalofs, and describes the 
negroes on the shores of the Senegal River. He 
is said to have gone 800 miles farther, entering 
the river Gambia, where he was attacked by the 
natives. During his stay in this river he saw the 
constellation of the Southern Cross, for the first 
time. Finding the negroes would have nothing 
to do with him, he returned to Portugal. 



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 21 

On a second voyage two years later he dis- 
covered the Cape Verde Islands. He again went 
up the Gambia River, this time making friends 




PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL. 

v/ith the negroes ; but for want of a knowledge 
of their language he could do no business with 



2 2 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

them. In a voyage taken some time between 1460 
and 1464 Sierra Leone (roaring thunder) was dis- 
covered. In 1469 the Gold Coast was explored; 
and a fort built there which Columbus afterwards 
visited. Prince Henry died in 1463. 

About this time came an officer from a territory 
between the Gold Coast and the Congo, who 
spoke about a greater power in Africa than his 
master, Lo whom his master was but as a vassal. 
This set the Portuguese King thinking about 
Prester John, of whom legends spoke as a Christ- 
ian Kin^ rulinor over a Christian nation, some- 
where in what was vaguely called the Indies. 

The King sent out another expedition on further 
discovery. They did not discover Prester John, 
but after sailing more than 1000 miles they reached 
a cape, which from their experience, they called 
Cape Stormy, but which their master renamed the 
Cape of Good Hope. Bartholomew Columbus, 
a brother of Christopher, was engaged in this 
voyage. 

The Prince of Jalof now came to Lisbon, to 
seek the King's protection. He was well received 
and made much of ; and was sent back to his own 
country with a Portuguese fleet of twenty cara- 
vels, with orders to build a fort on the bank of 
the river Senegal. 

We have now seen Portuguese discovery 



FIFTEENTH CENTURY DISCOVERIES. 23 

making its way with quiet perseverance for 70 
years from Cape Nam to the Cape of Good Hope, 
a distance of 6000 miles. This long course of 
discovery was thrown into the shade by the r^.ore 
daring and brilliant discovery of America. 

Prince Henry was hardly less a personage than 
Columbus. They had different elements to con 
tend with, but the man with princely wealth and 
position who had followed his purposes for 40 
years, heedless of public clamor, is worthy to be 
put in comparison with the other great discoverer 
who worked out his enterprise through poverty, 
neglect, sore travail and the changes of courts. 

It must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was 
the father of modern geographical discovery, and 
that the result of his labors must have oriven much 
impulse to Columbus, if it did not first move him 
to his great discovery. His kinsman, too, deserves 
merit for what he did, as do the many brave cap- 
tains who distinguished themselves in those 
enterprises. 

It remained for Columbus, first to form a sound 
theory of the various views of the cosmographers, 
and to carry out that theory with the boldness and 
resolution which have made his name one of 
those beacon-fires which carry on from period to 
period the tidings of the world's great history 
through successive ages. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 

Of the early years of Columbus nothing certain 
is known. A dozen different Italian cities claimed 
the honor of giving him birth. It is only recently 
that the will was found in which Columbus left 
part of his property to the Bank of Genoa, and 
settled the point in favor of that city. *' Thence 
I came," he says '' and there was I born." 

As to the date of his birth there is no such 
direct evidence ; and guesses founded on various 
statements in his own writings, and in those 
of people living at the same period, range over 
the twenty years from 1436 to 1456. Washington 
Irving adopts the earliest of these two dates upon 
the report which speaks of the death of Columbus 
in the year 1506, ''at a good old age, being 
seventy years old, a little more or less." This 
statement does not tally with some passages in 
Columbus's own letters. His son Fernando tells 
us "his hair turned white before he was thirty." 
This would add to his apparent age, and most 
likely deceived those around him at the time of 
24 



THE BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 25 

his death. The evidence of the ancient authori- 
ties, who seem most to be rehed upon, points to 
the year 1448 as being the probable date of his 
birth. 

More than one noble family laid claim to him 
after his name had become so illustrious. His 
son, Fernando, who wrote his history, made a 
journey solely to inquire into the truth of this 
subject, and gave up all claims of the kind. In 
making this admission, he wisely said, '* The glory 
of Christopher is quite enough, without there 
being a necessity to borrow any from his an- 
cestors." 

The father of Columbus was a wool-carder, but 
in a city of traders like Genoa this fact does not 
imply, as some have thought, that his family was 
of particularly humble origin. Columbus was the 
eldest of four children, having two brothers, Bar- 
tholomew and Diego. Christopher's education 
was but limited, but as extensive as the circum- 
stances of his parents would permit. While 
quite a child he was taught to read and write, and 
wrote so good a hand, says Las Casas, that 
with it he might have earned his bread. To 
this, at a somewhat later period, was added 
arithmetic, drawing and painting, and in these, 
as Las Casas has observed, he acquired sufficient 
skill to have gained a livelihood. 



26 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

He was sent for a short time to Pavia, the 
great school of learning in Lombardy. Here he 
studied grammar, and became well acquainted 
with the Latin tongue. His education, however, 
was mainly directed to those sciences needed to 
fit him for maritime life. He was taught geom- 
etry, geography, astronomy, or, as it was at that 
time termed, astrology, and navigation. He had, 
at a very early age, shown a strong passion for 
geographical science, and an ever-longing desire 
for the sea ; and he pursued with ardor every 
study that would help him in the aim of life that he 
seems to have thus early mapped out for himself 

It is no wonder that, exposed to such influences, 
he should have favored a life of adventure on the 
sea to the the drudgery of his father's trade in 
Genoa. After finishing his school studies, he 
spent but a few months as a carder of wool, and 
actually entered on his sailor career before he 
was fifteen years old. 

Considering how much more real the hero of a 
story appears if we can picture him accurately in 
our mind's eye, and see him ''in his habit as he 
lived," it is singularly unfortunate that the person- 
al appearance of Columbus has been so variously 
described by the old writers of history that it is 
impossible to speak with any certainty on the 
subject. Strangely enough, too, no really true 




COLUMBUS IN HIS YOUTH. 



28 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

portrait of the great discoverer exists. Fernando 
Columbus, who would be a good authority, fails 
to give us. in telling of his father, any of those 
little touches which make up a good literary 
photograph. We learn, however, that he was a 
man of fine presence, tall, well formed, strong, 
active and full of energy. His face was long, but 
neither full nor meagre ; his complexion fair and 
freckled, his nose aquiline, his cheek bones rather 
high, and his eyes light gray and full of expres- 
sion. His hair was naturally light in color, but as 
we have already stated, it turned nearly white 
while he was yet a young man. 

He was moderate and simple in his diet 
and apparel, a good talker, humane, self-denying, 
courteous, and had the happy faculty of readily 
making friends with strangers. 

He possessed an inquiring mind, and was 
singularly resolute and enduring. He was rapt 
in his designs, having a ringing for ever in his 
ears of great projects, making him deaf to much, 
perhaps, that prudence might have heeded ; — 
one to be loved by those near to him, and likely 
by his presence to inspire favor and respect. 

Of his many voyages, which of them took place 
before, and which after, his coming to Portugal, 
we have no distinct record ; but we are sure that 
he traveled over a large part of the known world, 



THE BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS. 29 

that he visited England, and that he made his way 
to Iceland, and Friesland (where he possibly heard 
the vague tales of the discoveries by the North- 
men in North America), that he had been on the 
coast of Guinea, and that he had seen the Islands 
of the Grecian Archipelago. " I have been seek- 
ing out the secrets of nature for forty years," he 
says, '' and wherever ship has sailed, there have I 
voyaged." But beyond a few vague hints of this 
kind, we know scarcely anything of these early 
voyages. 

He particularly mentions in his letters to Fer- 
dinand and Isabella, that he was employed by 
King Rene, of Provence, to cut out a galley from 
the port of Tunis. This exploit showed his bold- 
ness and his tact. During the voyage the news 
was brought that there were three other vessels 
with the galley. His crew did not wish to risk a 
fight and insisted that Columbus should return 
for more help. He made a show of doing so, 
but craftily altered the point of the compass so 
that it looked as though they were going back 
while they were really steering right ahead, and 
so arrived at Carthagena on the next morning, 
thinking all the while they were in full sail for 
Marseilles. It is a pity that no record exists of 
how this bold enterprise turned out. 

There is an interval of many years during which 



30 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

we have but one or two shadowy traces of Colum- 
bus. He is supposed to have been engaged in 
the Mediterranean and up the Levant, sometimes 
on voyages of commerce, sometimes in wadike 
contests between the ItaHan States, and some- 
times in pious and plundering trips against the 
Infidels. 

At what precise period his great idea came into 
his mind we have no means of learning. The 
lone series of Portuguese discoveries had excited 
the mind of Europe, and must have greatly influ- 
enced Columbus, living in the midst of them. 
This may be said without in the least taking any- 
thing away from his merits as a discoverer. In 
real life people do not spring from something un- 
real to something real, as they do in sick dreams. 
A great invention or discovery is often like a 
daring leap, but it is from land to land, not from 
nothing to something ; and if we look at the sub- 
ject with this view fully before us, we shall be 
forced to admit that Columbus had as large a 
share in the merit of his discovery as most inven- 
tors or discoverers can lay claim to. If the idea 
which has made him famous was not in his mind 
at the outset of his career of investigation, at any 
rate he had from the first a desire for discovery, 
or, as he says himself, the wish to know the 
secrets of this world. 



32 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

We know that he arrived at a fixed belief that 
there was a way by the west of the Indies ; that 
he could discover this way, and so come to the 
places he had met with in the gorgeous descrip- 
tions of Marco Polo, and other ancient travelers. 
Up to this time each new discovery was but a 
step beyond that which had gone before it. Col- 
umbus was the first to steer boldly from shore 
into the wild and unknown waste of waters, an 
originator, not a mere follower or improver of 
what had been done before. 

Fernando Columbus divides into three classes 
the grounds on which his father's theory was 
based : first, reasons from nature ; second, the 
authority of learned writers ; and third, the re- 
ports of sailors. He believed the world to be a 
sphere ; he under-estimated its size ; and judged 
that Asia was larger than it really was. The 
farther Asia extended to the east the nearer it 
came round towards Spain. And this had been the 
view of all the old geographers ; and the early 
travelers in their accounts all had the same idea 
of the vast extent of eastern Asia. 

Of all the works of learned men that which had 
the most weight with Columbus was the "Cosmo- 
graphia" by Cardinal Aliaco. This book was full 
of absurd fables of lion-bodied men and dog- 
faced women ; and the accounts of the earth's 




COLUMBUS AND TPIE EGG. 



33 



34 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

surface were mixed up with the wildest stories of 
monsters and salamanders, of giants and pigmies. 
These quaint figures appear in the earliest pictures 
of books of ocean travel. It is here we find the 
original of the sea-serpent, described as being 
'' of huge size, so that he kills and devours large 
stags, and is able to cross the ocean." Other 
wonders of the unknown world are given, and 
these must have easily won the trusting faith of a 
willing disciple like Columbus. 

He was confirmed in his views of the exist- 
ence of a western route to the Indies by Tosca- 
nelli, to whom much credit is due for the kindly 
aid he afforded to Columbus in his first great 
enterprise. 

That the notices of western lands were not 
such as to have much weight with most other men 
is proved by the trouble which Columbus had in 
struggling with adverse geographers and men of 
science, of whom, he says, he never was able to 
convince any one. After the new world had been 
discovered many scattered hints were then found 
to have foreshown it. When he promised a new 
world people said it could not exist, and when he 
had found it, that it had been known a long time. 
It was to show how little these people knew that 
he resorted to the well known expedient of making 
an ^^^ stand on end. 




35 



36 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

Of the hints he received from sailors It Is dif- 
ficult to speak with any degree of accuracy. 
Rumors of drift-wood, which appeared to be 
carved with some savage Implements ; of great 
reeds, like those which Ptolemy wrote about as 
growing in India, even of two corpses, cast up on 
one of the Azores, and presenting an appearance 
quite unlike that of any race of Europe or Africa; 
all seem to have come to the willing ears of Colum- 
bus, and to have been looked upon by him as 
strong proofs of the great theory. He felt that 
as the winds had drifted these from the west, they 
surely must have come from some unknown 
land in that direction. 

About the year 1470 Columbus arrived at 
Lisbon. According to the account given by his 
son, he was on a cruise trying to capture some 
Venetian merchant vessels on their way home 
richly laden from Flanders. At break of day a 
battle began off Cape St. Vincent, and lasted till 
nightfall. The vessel commanded by Columbus 
grappled with a huge Venetian galley, which, 
after a hand-to-hand fight, caught fire, and the 
flames spread to Columbus's vessel. Friends 
and enemies alike sought safety by jumping 
Into the sea, and Columbus, supporting himself 
on an oar, succeeded, when nearly exhausted. In 
gaining the land, which was some six miles dis- 



THE BOYHOOD OF COLUMBUS, 37 

tant. God saved him, says his son, for greater 
things. 

While at Lisbon, he used to attend reHgious 
service at the chapel of the Convent of All Saints. 
Here he met Donna Palestrello. She was the 
daughter of an Italian cavalier, who had been one 
of the most noted sea captains under Prince 
Henry, and had colonized and governed the 
island of Porto Santo. His marriage with this 
lady fixed his residence there. Her father being 
dead, the newly married couple made their home 
with the mother. She seeing the great interest 
that Columbus took in all matters relating to the 
sea, told him all she knew of the voyages of her 
husband, and brought him all his papers, and 
charts and journals. To Columbus these were 
treasures. He studied over all the routes of the 
Portuguese, and their plans and ideas, and when 
the chance offered he sailed in the trips to Guinea. 
When on shore, he made maps and charts, which 
he sold for the support of his family. 

We know but little of this period of his life. We 
find a few vague stories of his unsuccessful efforts 
to induce the Senate of Genoa to take up his 
project. From the Portuguese crown he could not 
look for help, as they were engaged in costly 
wars, and already had a field for discovery along 
the African coast. King John the Second, to 



S8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

whom he applied, listened with attention to his 
scheme, which he gave a sort of half promise to 
support, but he seems to have disagreed with 
Columbus about the terms. He referred Colum- 
bus to his Council for Geographical Affairs. The 
plans were laid before them, but they reported 
against the rashness of the scheme. The King 
was not entirely satisfied and secretly fitted out 
a vessel and sent it out with instructions founded 
on the plans that Columbus had explained. The 
vessel returned without having done anything; 
the sailors not having had the heart to venture 
far enough westward. It was not an enterprise 
to be carried out with success by mere hirelings, 
or by men who had only stolen the idea of it. 



CHAPTER IV. 

COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 

Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had 
received from the Portuguese Court, quitted Lis- 
bon, for Spain, probably in the year 1485, with 
his son Diego, the only child of his marriage 
with Donna Felipa, now no longer living. 

The first trace we have of him in Spain was 
given a few years after his death, by Garcia Fer- 
nandez, a doctor in the little seaport town of 
Palos, in Andalusia. About a mile from that town 
stood, and stands at the present day, an ancient 
convent of Franciscan friars, dedicated to Santa 
Maria de Rabida. According to the report of 
the doctor, a stranger, on foot, with a small boy, 
stopped one day at the gate of the convent, and 
asked of the porter a little bread and water for 
the child. While receiving this humble refresh- 
ment the prior of the convent. Friar Juan Perez, 
passed by, and was struck by the appearance of 
the stranger, and observing from his air and ac- 
cent that he was a foreigner, entered into conver- 
sation with him, and soon learned his story. 

39 



40 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

That stranger was Columbus, and his young son 
Diego. That he was in poor circumstances is evi- 
dent from the mode of his wayfaring. 

Juan Perez was a man of large learning. He 
possessed that hearty zeal in friendship which 
carries good wishes into good deeds. He kept 
'Columbus as his guest, and sent for his friend 
Doctor Fernandez to come and talk with him. 
Several meetings took place at the old convent, 
and the theory of Columbus was treated with a 
respect which it had in vain sought amid the bustle 
and pretension of Court sages and philosophers. 
Hints, too, were gathered from the veteran sailors 
which seemed to support the theory. Perez was 
on good terms with Talavera, who was confessor 
to the Queen, a man high in royal favor, and 
having great weight in public affairs. To him he 
gave Columbus a letter, strongly recommending 
himself and his enterprise to the good will of 
Talavera, and begging his friendly aid with the 
King and Queen. As the influence of the Church 
was very great in the Court of Castile, and as 
Talavera had direct access to the Queen, much was 
expected from his good offices. In the meantime, 
Perez took charge of the young son of Columbus, 
and kept and educated him at his convent. 

Columbus arrived at Cordova early in the year 
i486. Talavera was not friendly to the cause 




AT THE CONVENT GATE. 



41 



42 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

of Columbus. He was taken up with military 
concerns, and absent with the Court in its wars 
against the Moors, as the clerical adviser of the 
Queen in this, as it was termed, holy war. 

Amid the clang of arms and the busde of war, 
it is not surprising that Colnmbus could get but 
slio-ht attention to a matter which seemed so remote 
and uncertam. 

During the summer and fall of i486 Columbus 
remained at Cordova, supporting himself by the 
sale of maps and charts, and trusting to time and 
exertion to make him converts and friends that 
might prove useful. One of the best friends he 
gained was Ouintanilla, the Queen's treasurer, a 
man who like himself ''took delight in great 
things," and who got him a hearing from the 
Spanish monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella lis- 
tened kindly, and ended by referring the business 
to Talavera, whom they instructed to call a meeting 
of the most learned geographers and astronomers, 
who were to confer with Columbus and inform 
themselves of the grounds on which he founded 
his theory ; after which they were to consult to- 
gether and make their report. This junta, as it 
was called, met at Salamanca, the great seat of 
learning in Spain, in the year 1487. This was the 
first step gained. 

The junta did not regard the scheme of Colum- 




43 



44 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

bus with much favor. They were nearly all con- 
nected with the Church, and combined to crush 
Columbus with theological objections. Texts of 
Scripture were brought forward to refute the 
theory of the round shape of the earth, and the 
weighty authority of the early fathers of the Church 
was added to overthrow ''the foolish idea of the 
existence of the antipodes; of people who walk op- 
posite to us, with their heels upwards and their heads 
hanging down ; where everything is topsy-turvy, 
where the trees grow with their branches down- 
wards, and where it rains, hails and snows up- 
wards." The book of Genesis in the Bible, the 
psalms of David, the orations of the prophets, the 
epistles of the apostles, and the gospels of the 
Evangelists, were all put in evidence agLmst Col- 
umbus. It was impossible that there should be 
people on what was thus vainly asserted to be the 
other side of the earth, since none such were 
mentioned in the Bible. In fine, the junta decided 
that the project was ''vain and impossible; and 
that it did not belong to the royalty of such great 
princes to determine anything upon such weak 
grounds of information." 

Columbus could not reconcile his plan with the 
cosmography of Ptolemy, to which all scholars of 
that time yielded implicit faith. None of them 
knew that the man Copernicus was then in ex- 




'iimim^^^ 






,^:.L; „..;.,::., 'ill' 'I < '>. ' 



45 



46 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

istence, whose solar system should reverse the 
grand theory of Ptolemy, which placed the earth 
in the centre of the universe. 

The junta were interrupted by the departure of 
the Court to Cordova, early in the spring of 1487, 
called away by the concerns of the war, in the 
memorable battle against Malaga. Talavera 
went with the Queen as her confessor. 

Ferdinand and Isabella seem not to have taken 
the extremely unfavorable report of the junta, or 
were disposed to dismiss Columbus gently, for 
they said that " with the wars at present on their 
hands, and especially that of Granada, they could 
not undertake any new expenses, but when the 
war was ended, they would examine his plan 
more carefully." 

Thus ended a solicitation at the Court of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella, which is said to have lasted five 
years ; for the facts here mentioned, though short 
in the telling, occupied a long time in transaction. 
During the whole of this period Columbus 
appears to have followed the sovereigns in the 
movements from place to place, which the war 
made necessary, and to have been treated with 
much consideration. Sums were from time to 
time granted to him from the royal treasury for 
his private expenses, and he was billeted as a 
public officer in the various towns of Andalusia, 



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN, 



47 



where the Court rested. But at the best, this 
must have been an up-hill task. Las Casas com- 




ALONZO PINZON 



48 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

pares the suit of Columbus to a battle, *'a ter- 
rible, continuous, painful, prolix battle." The 
tide of this long battle having turned against him, 
Columbus went to Seville "with much sadness 
and discomfiture." 

Columbus had given up all hope of aid from 
the Spanish monarchs, and now tried to find some 
rich man who would engage in the enterprise. 
Amone others that he saw were the Duke of 
Medina Sidonia, and the Duke of Medina Celi, 
whose large possessions along the Spanish coast 
were likely to lead them to help his views. He 
must have received some encouragement, for 
when he succeeded, the Duke Celi wrote to the 
Cardinal of Spain, showing that he had kept 
Columbus two years at his house, and was ready 
to assist him in his enterprise, but that he saw 
that it was one for the Queen herself, and even 
then he wished to have some part of it. 

Probably any man with whom Columbus lived 
for two years would have caught some portion of 
his enthusiasm, and been ready to take up his pro- 
ject, but none of the nobles of Spain would have 
been likely to have undertaken the matter without 
the sanction of the King and Queen. Celi ad- 
vised Columbus to apply once more to the Queen 
and offered to use his influence with her in his 
behalf. 



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 49 

But some friends remained who shared his faidi 
and urged him onward. Juan Perez, now guar- 
dian of die monastery at Rabida, had exchanged 
the bustle of the Court for the learned leisure of 
the cloister. The little town of Palos, with its sea- 
faring population and maritime interests, was near 
the monastery, and the principal men of the place 
were glad to spend the long winter evenings In 
the society of Perez, over questions of geography 
and astronomy. 

Amonor the visitors were Martin Alonzo Pin- 
zon, the chief ship-owner of Palos, and Fernandez, 
the village doctor. Fernandez, who was skilled 
in the physical sciences, and therefore capable of 
appreciating the arguments of Columbus, became 
a warm believer In his project. 

Columbus had given up his suit at Court In dis- 
gust, and called at the monastery before quitting 
Spain to fetch his son, Diego, whom he had left 
with Juan Perez to be educated. All his griefs and 
troubles he confided to Perez, who could not bear 
to hear of his Intention to leave the country for 
France or England, and to make a foreign nation 
greater by allowing It to adopt his project. 

The affection of Perez, and the learning of 
Fernandez, were not slow to follow In the track 
which the enthusiasm of the great adventurer made 
out before them, and they became as convinced 



50 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

as Columbus himself of the feasibility of the un- 
dertaking. But the difficulty was in persuading 
those to believe who would have power to further 
the enterprise. Their discussion of these points 
ended in the conclusion that Perez, who was 
known to the Queen, should write to her high- 
ness. He did so, and owing to the honest zeal 
with which he urged the cause of Columbus, the 
result was favorable. The Queen sent for him, 
and he journeyed on to Santa Fe by night ; she 
heard what he had to say, and in consequence, 
sent money to Columbus to enable him to come 
to Court, and renew his suit. 

Columbus attended the Court again. He 
arrived in time to witness the surrender of 
Granada to the Spanish arms. He beheld the 
last of the Moorish Kings sally forth from the 
Alhambra, and yield up the keys of that great 
seat of power. It was a great day for Spain. 
After nearly 800 years of painful struggle the 
Crescent was completely cast down, and the 
Cross exalted in its place, and the flag of Spain 
was seen floating on the highest tower of the 
Alhambra. The moment had now arrived when 
the Monarchs stood pledged to attend to his 
proposals. They kept their word. Full of the 
grandeur of his enterprise, he would listen to 
none but princely conditions. The resumed deal- 



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 



51 



Ings were again broken off, this time on the 
ground that the largeness of his conditions could 




THE LAST OF THE MOORISH KINGS. 

not be granted. His enemies said his conditions 
were too large if he succeeded, and if he should 



52 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

not succeed the conditions should come to noth- 
ing ; they thought there was an air of trifling in 
granting such conditions at all. 

And indeed they were very large; he was to be 
made an admiral at once, to be appointed viceroy 
of the countries he should discover, and to have 
one-eighth of the profits of the expedition. 

Columbus now resolved to go to France, when 
Perez and Fernandez managed to get another 
hearing for Columbus from Cardinal Mendoza, 
who was pleased with him. The Cardinal was the 
most important person about Court. The King 
and Queen had him always at their side, in peace 
and war. He followed with them in all their 
wars, and they never took any measure of im- 
portance without consulting him. 

Columbus offered in order to meet the objection 
to pay one-eighth part of the expenses of the 
expedition. Still nothing was done, and now 
finally Columbus determined to go to France, and 
indeed actually set off one day in January 1492, 
when Santangel, the receiver of the Church 
revenues of the Crown of Aragon, a man much 
devoted to the plans of Columbus, addressed the 
Queen, with all the energy that a man throws into 
his words when he is aware that it Is his last time 
for speaking in favor of a thing which he has much 
at heart. He told her that he wondered that as 








COLUMBUS BEFORE THE COURT. 



53 



54 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

she always had a lofty mind for great things, it 

should be wantincr on this occasion. He tried to 
<_> 

raise her jealousy by saying that the enterprise 
might fall into the hands of other princes, hinting 
at the eternal fame that Portugal had gained in 
this way. 

He ended by saying that Columbus wanted 
but two vessels and about $1500. in money and 
that so great an enterprise ought not to be given 
up for the sake of such a trifling sum. These 
arguments falling in as they did, with those of 
Quintanilla, the treasurer, who has great influence 
with the Queen, prevailed. The Queen thanked 
these lords for their counsel ; and said she would 
adopt it, but they must wait till the finances had 
recovered a little from the drain upon them 
caused by the conquest of Granada, or if it 
were wiser to carry it out at once, she would 
pledge her jewels to raise the needed money. 

Santangel offered to advance the money 
required. Upon this Quintanilla sent to bring 
Columbus back to Court. He was overtaken six 
miles from Granada, returned to Santa Fe, where 
the Sovereigns were camped before Granada, 
was well received by Queen Isabella, and finally 
the agreement between him and their Catholic 
highness was settled. 

Not much of King Ferdinand is seen in all 



COLUMBUS IN SPAIN. 55 

these dealings. It was known that he had looked 
coldly on the plans of Columbus. Henry the 
Seventh, of England, refused to adopt the pro- 
ject laid before him by Bartholomew Columbus, 
who went to England, and it is said, was '' mocked 
and jeered at the English Court." 

King Ferdinand seems to have looked at the 
whole affair as an instance of Isabella's good- 
natured sympathy with enthusiasts. His own cool 
and wary nature made him distrust this '* pauper 
pilot, promising rich realms." 

The conditions of Columbus, that he had held 
out so proudly for, were all "granted, by the King 
and Queen, at Santa Fe, in the Vega of Granada, 
April 17, 1492." 

Thus gratified in his dearest wishes after delays 
that would have driven the ordinary man to des- 
pair, Columbus, on May 12, 1492, left the Court 
and set out joyfully for Palos. Eighteen years 
had passed from the time Columbus first got the 
idea before he was enabled to carry it into effect. 
Most of that time was passed in hopeless solicita- 
tion, amid poverty, neglect, and ridicule ; the 
prime of his life had wasted away in the struggle, 
and he was 56 years old, when success came to 
him. His example should encourage the enter- 
prising never to despair. 

Armed with his Commission, Columbus left the 



56 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

Court of Palos. His friends at the monastery 
were delighted that the scheme upon which they 
had pinned their faith was now to be launched. 
There was no delay in furnishing the funds. The 
town of Palos was ordered to provide two vessels 
within ten days. The difficulty now was to get 
sailors to man the vessels. The men did not 
want to risk their lives on what they looked upon 
as a crazy voyage. Columbus was allowed to 
press men into the service, but still they could not 
get enough men of the right stamp. 

Juan Perez did much to get men to embark. 
The Pinzons, rich' men, and skillful seamen, join- 
ed in the undertaking, and aided it with their 
money, and by these united efforts three vessels 
were manned with 90 sailors, and with provisions 
for a year. The vessels were all of small size. 

The Santa Maria, which Columbus commanded, 
was the only one that was decked throughout. 
The officers and crew were 16 in number. The 
other two vessels were of that class called cara- 
vels, and were decked fore and aft, but had no 
deck in the middle ; the stem and stern being 
built so as to rise high out of the water. One 
of them, the Pmta, was manned by a crew of 
30 sailors, and was commanded by Martin Alonzo 
Pinzon. The other, the Nina, had Vincent 
Pinzon as Captain, and a crew of 24 men. The 




QUEEN ISABELLA IN CAMP. 



57 



58 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

whole number of adventurers amounted to 1 20 
persons — men of various countries, one of them, 
Arthur Lake, coming from England, and another 
entered on the list as William Rice, native of 
Galway, Ireland. 

A deep gloom was spread over the whole town 
of Palos. Almost every one had some relative or 
friend on board the squadron. The spirits of the 
sailors, depressed by their own fears, were still more 
cast down at the sorrow of those they left behind, 
who took leave of them with tears, as of men 
they were never to behold again. 

By the beginning of August every difficulty had 
been overcome, and the vessels were ready for 
sea. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE FIRST VOYAGE. 

It was Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight o'clock 
in the morning, after they had all confessed and 
received the sacrament, that Columbus set sail on 
his first voyage of discovery. They sailed from 
the Bar of Saltes, making for the Canary Islands, 
from whence it was intended to sail west. 

Columbus had now changed the long, weary, 
dismal life of a suitor for the sharp, intense anxi- 
ety of a struggle in which there was no choice to 
success but deplorable, ridiculous, fatal failure. 
Speaking afterwards of the time he had spent as 
a suitor at Court, he says, '' Eight years I was torn 
with disputes, and, in a word, my proposition was 
a thing for mockery." It was now to be seen 
what mockery was in it. The following account 
of the voyage is mainly taken from an abridgment 
of Columbus's own diary made by Las Casas, who 
in some places gives the admiral's own words. 

The little squadron reached the Canary Islands 
in a few days with no event worth recording, 
except that the caravel Pin^a broke her rudder. 

59 



.6o CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

This was supposed to be no accident, but to have 
been done by the owners of the vessel, who did not 
Hke the voyage, and hoped she would be left be- 
hind. The crew had been pressed into the service 
greatly against their will, and the caravel had 
been seized for the expedition by the royal orders. 

Columbus was much disturbed by this occur- 
rence. The wind was blowing strongly at the 
time, so that he could not render any assistance 
without running some risk to his own vessel. 
Fortunately Martin Pinzon commanded the Pinta, 
and being an adroit and able seaman, he suc- 
ceeded in securing the rudder with cords, so as to 
bring the vessel into management. They were 
detained three weeks among these islands seeking 
in vain to find another vessel. They were obliged 
to make a new rudder for the Pmta, and to repair 
her as well as they were able for the voyage. 

The sails were changed into square sails, that 
she might work more steadily and securely, and 
be able to keep up with the other vessels. 

While sailing among these islands they passed 
in sight of Teneriffe, whose lofty peak was send- 
ing out volumes of flame and smoke. The 
crew were terrified at the sight of this eruption. 
Columbus told them all about the causes of these 
volcanic fires, telling them of Mount Etna and 
other well-known volcanoes. 




THE DEPARTURE FROM PALOS. 



6i 



62 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

While taking in wood, water and provisions, 
they were told that three Portuguese caravels 
were hovering off the island, with the intention 
to capture Columbus. On September 6, Colum- 
bus sailed boldly out to sea, without meeting with 
any of his enemies. 

On losing sight of the last trace of land, the 
hearts of the crews failed them. They seemed 
to have taken leave of the world. Behind them 
was everything dear to them ; country, family, 
friends, life itself; before them was chaos, mystery 
and peril. Many of the rugged seamen shed 
tears and broke out into loud wailings. Columbus 
tried in every way to soothe their distress, and to 
inspire them with his own glorious fancies. He 
promised them land and riches, and everything 
that could arouse them. And he did not do this 
to deceive them ; he believed that he should 
realize all his promises. 

For many days the diary is little more than a 
log-book, giving the rate of sailing — or rather 
two rates, one for Columbus' own private need, 
and the other for the sailors. On September 13, 
he noticed about nightfall that the needle, instead 
of pointing to the north star, varied a trifle to the 
north-west, and still more on the following morning. 
He watched this attentively for three days, and 
found that the variation increased as he advanced. 



THE FIRST VOYAGE. ^t, 

He said nothing, but it also attracted the attention 
of the pilots, and filled them with dread. They 
thought that the compass was about to lose its 
virtue, and without this guide, what was to be- 
come of them in a vast and trackless ocean ? 

It taxed all of Columbus's science and ingen- 
uity for reasons with which to allay their terror. 
The high opinion that they had of him as an 
astronomer led them to accept his theories. On 
the 14th, the sailors of the Nina saw two tropical 
birds, which they said never went beyond sixty 
miles from shore. On the 1 5th, they saw a meteor 
fall from heaven, which made them very sad. 
These meteors, common in warm climates, and 
especially under the tropics, are always seen in 
the clear, azure sky of these latitudes, falling as 
it were from the heavens, but never beneath a 
cloud. On the 1 6th, they first came across large 
plains of seaweed. On one of these patches was 
a live crab, which Columbus carefully preserved. 
.Tunny fish also played about the ships. 

The wind had to this time been favorable. They 
had made great progress each day, though Colum- 
bus, according to his secret plan, managed to 
suppress several miles in the daily score left open 
to the crew. On September i8th, they see many 
birds, and a cloud in the distance ; and that niorht 
they expect to see land. On the 19th, in the 



64 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

morning, comes a pelican (a bird not usually seen 
fifty miles from the coast); in the evening, another, 
also a drizzling rain without wind, a certain sign 
of closeness to land. 

Columbus will not beat around for land, as he 
rightly thinks these signs give token only of 
islands, as it proved to be. He will see these on 
his return ; but now he must press on to the 
Indies. This resolve shows his strength of mind, 
and also the almost scientific basis on which his 
great idea reposed. 

Columbus would not allow himself to be moved 
from his main design by any partial success, 
though by this time he well knew the fears of his 
men, some of whom had already agreed,*' that it 
would be their best plan to throw him quietly into 
the sea, and say he fell in, while he stood ab- 
sorbed in looking at the stars." Indeed, three 
days after he had resolved to pass on to the 
Indies, we find him saying : "Very needful for me 
was this contrary wind, for the crews were very 
much tormented with the idea that there were noj 
winds on these seas that would carry them back 
to Spain." 

On they go, having signs from time to time, in 
the presence of birds and grass, and fish, that 
land must be near ; but land does not come. 
Once they are all satisfied that they see land ; 




6s 



66 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

and they sing the ''Gloria in Excelsis'\ and even 
Columbus goes out of his course towards this 
land, which turns out to be no land. 

On October i, they had sailed by the ship's 
record 1,740 miles, while the real reckoning kept 
by Columbus showed 2,121 miles. On the next 
day the weeds floated from east to west, and on 
the third day no birds were to be seen. The 
crew began to fear that they had passed between 
islands, from one to the other of which the birds had 
been flying ; Columbus had some doubts of the 
same kind, but refused to alter his westward course. 
The crews began to utter murmurs and threats, 
but on the day following, they were visited by 
such flights of birds, and the various signs of 
land became so many that from a state of des- 
pondency they passed into one of eager expecta- 
tion. 

A pension of thirty crowns had been promised 
by Spain to him Vv^ho should first discover land. 
Eager to earn this reward, they were giving out 
the cry of land on the least appearance of the 
kind. To put a stop to these false alarms, Col- 
umbus declared that should anyone give notice of 
land, and it be not found for three days after- 
wards, he should forfeit all claim to the reward. 

On October 6 Martin Pinzon began to lose 
confidence in their present course, and wanted 



THE FIRST VOYAGE. 67 

Columbus to steer more to the southward, but he 
refused, and continued towards the west. On 
the 7th land was thought to be seen In the west, 
but no one ventured to proclaim it for fear of 
losing the reward. The Nina being a good sailor, 
pressed forward to ascertain the fact. In a little 
while a flag was hoisted at her masthead, and a 
gun fired, being the arranged signals for land. 
New joy was awakened, and every eye was 
turned towards the west. As they sailed on, 
their cloud-built hopes faded away ; and before 
evening the fancied land had again melted into 
air. 

The crews were again sadly dejected. Colum- 
bus observed great flights of small field birds 
going towards the southwest, and he made up his 
mind that they must be secure of some near land, 
where they would find food and a resting place. 
He determined to alter his course and sail with 
the birds, and go in that direction for at least two 
days. This met the wishes of the Pinzons, and 
inspired the crews generally. 

For three days they sailed in this direction, and 
the farther they went the more encouraging were 
the signs of land; but when on the evening of the 
third day, they beheld the sun go down upon a 
shoreless horizon, they looked on all these signs 
as so many delusions luring them on to destruc- 



68 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

tion. They insisted upon turning homeward, and 
giving up the voyage as hopeless. Columbus tried 
to pacify them with gentle words and promises of 
large rewards ; and when these seemed useless, 
he took a decided tone, and saying they were sent 
to seek the Indies, happen what might, he would 
go on, till by the blessing of God he should accom 
pllsh the enterprise. 

Columbus was now In open war with his crews, 
and his situation was truly desperate. Happily, 
on the next day, the signs of land were such as 
to admit of no doubt. Besides fresh weeds, such 
as grow in rivers, they saw a green fish, of a kind 
which keeps about rocks ; then a branch of thorn 
with berries on it ; then they picked up a weed, 
a small board, and above all, a staff artificially 
carved. All gloom now gave way ; and all day 
each one was eagerly on the watch, In hopes of 
being the first to discover the long sought for land. 

In the evening after the vesper hymn to the 
Virgin, Columbus made an address to the crew. 
He thought it likely they should land that night, 
and ordered a sharp look out. Not an eye was 
closed that night. About ten o'clock Columbus 
thought he saw a light glimmering at a great dis- 
tance. He called the attention of two of his 
officers to It. The light came and went, as though 
in the hand of some person on shore. Columbus 



THE FIRST VOYAGE. 69 

looked on this as a certain sign of land, and 
believed the land was inhabited. 

They continued on their course till two o'clock 
in the morning, when a gun from the Pinta gave 
the joyful signal of land. The land was now 
dimly seen about six miles off. They took in 
sail, and waited impatiently for the dawn. 

Land was first seen by Rodrigo de Triana. 
We cannot but be sorry for this poor common 
sailor, who got no reward, and of whom they tell 
a story, that in sadness and despite, he passed 
into Africa, after his return to Spain, and became 
a Mohometan. The pension was judged to go to 
Columbus, on the ground that he first saw the 
light ; and was paid to him on the day of his 
death. 

The great mystery of the ocean was now at 
at last revealed. His theory, which had been the 
scoff even of sages, was now established. He 
had secured to himself a glory which must be as 
durable as the world itself. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 

The landing of Columbus in the New World 
must ever be a conspicuous fact in the records of 
mankind, and it was celebrated in a manner 
worthy of the occasion. On Friday, October 12, 
1492, Columbus, clad in a full suit of armor, and 
carrying in his hand the royal banner of Spain, 
descended upon the level shores of the small 
island (San Salvador, one of the Bahamas), which 
had first greeted him, and which he found to be 
very fruitful, fresh and verdant, and 'Mike a gar- 
den full of roses." Martin Pinzon and his brother 
Vincent went with him, each of them bearing a 
banner with a green cross upon it, and with the 
letters F. and Y. surmounted by their respective 
crowns, the initials of the Spanish monarchs Fer- 
nando and Ysabel. These chief officers were 
followed by a large portion of the crews. In lines 
along the shore stood the simple natives, all per- 
fectly naked, looking on with innocent amazement. 

On touching land, Columbus and all the Span- 
iards who were present fell upon their knees, and 

70 




71 



72 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

with tears poured forth their '' immense thanks- 
givings to Almighty God." Drawing his sword, 
and displaying the royal standard, Columbus took 
solemn possession in the name of the sovereigns, 
giving the island the name of San Salvador. 
After going through these forms and ceremonies, 
he called on all present to take the oath of obedi- 
ence to him, as admiral and viceroy. 

When the natives saw the boats coming to the 
shore with a number of strange beings, clad in 
shining steel with clothes of various colors, they 
fled off in frioht to the woods. Findinof that there 
was no attempt made to pursue or molest them 
they got over their terror and slowly came back. 
They came up to the strangers, wondering at their 
whiteness and at their beards. Columbus attracted 
their attention, from his height, his air of 
authority, his dress of scarlet, and the respect 
paid to him by the others, all of which pointed 
him out as the chief. 

The natives were no less objects of curiosity 
to the Spaniards, differing as they did from any 
race of men they had ever seen. Their looks 
did not give much promise of either riches or 
learning, for they were entirely naked, and 
painted with a variety of colors. 

'T gave them," says Columbus, ''some colored 
caps, and some strings of glass beads for their 




73 



74 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

necks and many other things of Httle value, with 
which they were dehghted. They came swimming 
out to our boats, and brought us parrots, cotton 
thread in balls, darts, and many other things, and 
bartered them with us for bells and small glass 
beads. In fine, they took and gave all of what- 
ever they had with good will." These trifles 
Columbus brought with him, because the Portu- 
guese sailors found them useful in trading with 
the negroes on the gold coast of Africa. 

As Columbus supposed he had landed on an 
island at the end of India, he gave to the natives 
the name of Indians, and this name was adopted, 
and has ever since been applied to the natives of 
the New World. 

Columbus tells us that these Indians were well 
made, with very good faces, had hair like horse- 
hair, and were yellow in color. They did not 
carry any arms, and knew nothing of such things, 
for when he showed them swords, they took hold 
of them by the blades, and cut themselves. Some 
of these Indians wore gold rings in their noses. 
These they gladly exchanged for the hawks' bells. 
Columbus asked where this gold was to be got. 
They answered by signs, pointing to the south ; 
and he understood them that in that quarter there 
was a king of great wealth, insomuch that he was 
served in great vessels of wrought gold. 




75 



76 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

Columbus now felt satisfied that he had landed 
among those islands described by Marco Polo, 
as lying opposite Cathay, in the Chinese Sea, 
and he thought everything accorded with the 
account given of those rich regions of the great 
Khan of the East. 

On October 14, he set off at daybreak with 
the boats of the ships to cruise along the islands. 
They passed two or three villages, and the men 
and women ran to the shores, and threw them- 
selves upon the ground, lifting up their hands and 
eyes, either giving thanks to Heaven, or worship- 
ping the Spaniards. Their idea was that these 
white men had come from the skies. 

On October 16, Columbus went on shore, giving 
the island the name of Santa Maria Concepcion. 
Finding nothing here to induce delay, he returned 
on board, and sailed to the west, landing at another 
island which he called Fernandina, in honor of 
the King. The natives here seemed more intel- 
ligent. Some of the women wore scanty aprons 
of cotton, others had cotton mantles, but for the 
most part they were naked. For beds they had 
nets of cotton, spread from two posts, which they 
called hamacs, a name since used by seamen. 
Here they found a noble harbor, large enough to 
hold one hundred ships. Here the men landed 
with the casks in search of water. Columbus says 



THE NEW WORLD EOUND. 77 

in his diary, " The country was as fresh and green 
as the month of May in Andalusia ; the trees, 
fruits, flowers, herbs, the very stones, for the most 
part, as different from those of Spain, as night 
from day." The natives looked on their visitors 
with awe ; took them to the coolest springs, filled 
their casks, rolled them to the boats, and in every 
way tried to gratify them. 

Leaving Fernandina on the 19th, they steered 
to the south-west, where their guides told them 
was a gold mine, with a king living in a large 
city, with great riches, wearing clothes studded 
with jewels and gold. They found the island, 
but not the king, nor the mine. No animals had 
been seen on these islands but lizards and a kind 
of rabbit, called guanas, and a species of dog 
that never barked. 

To the constant inquiry of Columbus as to 
where the natives got their gold, they always 
pointed to the south. It was learned that an 
island lay in that direction called Cuba, that was 
rich in gold and jewels and spices, and did quite 
a trade with ships that stopped there. Columbus 
now made up his mind to leave the Bahamas and 
go in quest of Cuba. 

Owing to contrary winds and calms, followed 
by heavy showers, it was October 28 before he 
sighted the island of Cuba. He was struck with 



78 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

the grandeur of its features ; its high and airy 
mountains reminding him of those of Sicily ; its 
fertile valleys and wide plains, watered by noble 
rivers. In the diary Columbus says, " One could 
live here forever ; it is the most iDeautiful island 
that eyes ever beheld." The houses were better 
built than those he had yet seen, and they were 
kept clean. But the natives fled to the mountains 
or hid in the woods on his approach. In the 
course of their searches, they met with the potato, 
a humble root, little valued at the time, but more 
precious to man than all the spices of the east. 
They also beheld the natives going around with 
firebrands in their hands, and certain dried herbs, 
which they rolled up in a leaf, and lighting one 
end, put the other end in their mouths, inhaling 
and puffing out smoke. These rolls they called 
tobacco. This discovery of tobacco proved of 
more value to the Spanish crown than all the gold 
mines of the Indies. 

On November 12, Columbus turned his course, 
to follow back the direction of the coast. Had he 
proceeded far within the old channel, between 
Cuba and the Bahamas, he would have discovered 
his mistake in thinking Cuba a part of Terra 
Firma ; an error in which he continued to the day 
of his death. He might have stood for the coast 
of Florida, or have been carried there by the Gulf 




CONCEPTION BAY. 



79 



So CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

Stream ; or he might have struck over to the op- 
posite coast of Yucatan, and reaUzed his greatest 
hopes, in being the discoverer of Mexico. It was 
glory enough, however, for Columbus to have 
found a new world. Its more golden regions were 
reserved to give splendor to succeeding enter- 
prises. 

Martin Pinzon parted company with Columbus 
while on the coast of Cuba. He grew tired of 
taking orders from Columbus. His avarice was 
suddenly awakened. His vessel being the best 
sailor, he could easily ply to windward, while the 
others could not. The Indian guides he had with 
him offered to bring him to an island of great 
riches. He might be the first, therefore, to discover 
this golden region, and enrich himself with its first 
fruits, Columbus was indignant at this deser- 
tion ; but his heavy ship made all attempts at pur- 
suit hopeless. 

On December 6, Columbus entered a harbor 
at the western end of the island, which he called 
St. Nicholas, by which it is called to this day. 
From the number of canoes seen in various parts 
there were evidently large villages near, but the 
natives fled with terror at the sight of the ships. 
The interpreter was sent after them. He quieted 
their terrors by saying that the strangers had 
come from the skies, and went about the world 



THE NEW WORLD EOUND. 8i 

making beautiful presents. Thus assured, they 
ventured back, about 2,000 of them. They were 
a well formed race, fairer and handsomer than 
the natives of the other islands. They brought 
the Spaniards to their houses and set before them 
casava bread, fish, roots, and fruits of many kinds. 
They offered freely what they possessed. But 
there were no signs of riches. 

On December 14, Columbus visited an Island 
lying opposite to the harbor of Conception, to 
which, from its abounding in turtle, he gave the 
name of Tortugas. On the 1 6th he steered again 
for Hispaniola, called by the natives Hayti. The 
ships were visited by a Cacique of the neighbor- 
hood. He was borne on a litter by four men, 
and attended by 200 of his subjects. Columbus 
entertained him at dinner on board his vessel. 
After the dinner the Cacique presented Columbus 
with a belt curiously made, and two pieces of 
gold. Columbus gave him a piece of cloth, 
several amber beads, colored shoes, and a flask 
of orange flower water. They found but little 
gold in this place. The region of promise still 
lay further on. One of the old counsellers of the 
Cacique told Columbus that he would soon arrive 
at islands rich in the precious ore. 

On December 20th, Columbus anchored in a 
fine bay, to which he gave the name of St. Thomas. 



S2 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

On the 2 2d, a large canoe, filled with natives, 
came on a mission from a grand Cacique named 
Guacanagari who owned all that part of the 
island. He resided in a town on a river called 
Punta Santa. It was the largest and best built 
town they had yet seen. 

On December 24th, Columbus set sail from Con- 
ception, intending to anchor at the harbor of the 
Cacique Guacanagari. The wind was very light, 
and the ship made but little progress. It was the 
night before Christmas, and Columbus, who had 
kept watch, retired to take a little rest, not having 
slept the night before. On account of the great 
calm he felt secure, and there was no report of 
rocks or shoals in their course. 

No sooner had the vigilant admiral retired, than 
the steersman gave the helm in charge to one of 
the ship boys, and went to sleep. The rest 
of the sailors who had the watch took advantage 
of the absence of Columbus, and in a little while 
the whole crew were buried in sleep. While this 
fancied security reigned over the ship, the cur- 
rents, which ran swiftly along this coast, carried 
her quietly, but with force, upon a sand-bank. 
The heedless boy had not noticed the breakers, 
but when he felt the rudder strike, he cried for 
aid. Columbus was the first to take the alarm, 
and mount the deck. The master of the ship, 




THE FIRST SIGNS OF GOLD. 



83 



84 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

whose duty it was to have been on watch, next 
made his appearance, followed by others of the 
crew, half awake, and not aware of their peril. 
Columbus ordered them to take the boat, and 
carry out an anchor astern, that they might try to 
tow the vessel off. They sprang into the boat ; 
but were seized with a panic, and instead of obey- 
ing their orders, sailed off to the other caravel. 

When the boat arrived at the caravel, they were 
refused admission, and reproached for their cow- 
ardly desertion. The master and several of the 
crew of the caravel got out their boat, and sailed 
to the rescue ; but were too late to save the ship, 
which the stroncr current had set more and more 
upon the bank ; until her keel was firmly bedded 
in the sand. 

Columbus and his crew took refuge on board 
the caravel. Messengers were sent on shore to 
inform the Cacique of their disaster. He sent all 
his people, with all the canoes that could be 
gathered, and unloaded the vessel. On December 
26, the Cacique came on board the Pinta, and 
tried to cheer up Columbus. He gave him houses 
to shelter the Spaniards, and to receive the effects 
landed from the wreck. 

The Cacique took Columbus to the beautiful 
groves near his residence. They were attended 
by over a thousand of the natives, all perfectly 



THE NEW WORLD FOUND. 85 

naked. He assured Columbus, by signs, that 
there was a place not far off where gold abounded 
in such a degree that it was held in little value. 

Columbus showed the Cacique a Moorish bow 
and a quiver of arrows, and got a man who was 
skillful in the use of them to show how these 
weapons were used. The Cacique told him of 
the Caribs, who often made descents upon his 
lands and carried off his subjects ; and how they 
also were armed with these bows and arrows. 
Columbus promised to destroy these Caribs ; 
knowing he had weapons against which there was 
no defence. In proof of this, he ordered a heavy 
cannon to be fired. At the sound of this gun the 
Indians fell to the ground as though they had been 
struck with a thunderbolt ; and when they saw 
the ball rending and shivering the trees like a 
stroke of lightning, they were filled with dismay. 
On being told that the Spaniards would defend 
them with these weapons, their alarm changed 
to joy, and they felt that they were under the 
protection of the sons of heaven. 

The Cacique presented Columbus with a mask 
carved of wood, with the eyes, ears and other 
parts of gold ; he hung plates of the same metal 
around his neck, and placed a kind of golden 
coronet upon his head. He also made various 
gifts to the crew. 



86 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

The kindness of the Cacique, the gentleness of 
the people, and the quantities of gold which were 
daily brought to be exchanged for the commonest 
trifles did much to console Columbus for the loss 
he had suffered. 

The shipwrecked crew lived on shore. When 
they looked back upon their toilsome and painful 
life in Spain, and thought of the cares and hard- 
ships that must still be their lot if they returned 
to Europe, it is no wonder that they looked with 
a wistful eye on the easy and idle life of these 
Indians. '1 he men were simple, frank and cor- 
dial ; the women loving and willing to marry. 
They saw gold around them to be had without 
labor, and enjoyment to be got without cost. 
Many of the seamen begged Columbus to allow 
them to remain on the island. 

Columbus resolved to found a colony in 
Guacanagari's land, ''having found such good 
will and such signs of gold." With the timber of 
the unfortunate Santa Maria he built a fort, and 
called it La Natividad, because he entered the 
port near there on Christmas day. The shipwreck 
which Columbus looked upon as an act of divine 
favor, to reveal to him the secrets of the land, 
limited all his after discoveries. It linked his 
fortunes for the rest of his life to this island, 
which was doomed to be to him a scene of cares 



-'^ 



#^<^ 



'id&i 



J ! 




i 



m''^ 













•<;"■ 



Tff* 



»^,. 




8S CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

and troubles, to tie him up in a thousand doubts, 
and to cloud his last years with humiliation and 
disappointment. 

He remained on very friendly terms with this 
good Cacique, and might have done well in that 
part of the country if he could have been con- 
tent to be a settler. But he had an anxious desire 
to get back to Spain, and tell all he knew. At 
times he feared that his grand secret might still 
perish with him. So he resolved to return home. 
He left the fort in trust to a small body of his 
followers, whom he commended to the good will 
of the Cacique. He advised the men to do no 
violence to man or woman, but to act as if they 
had really came from heaven. Then getting the 
necessary provisions for his vessel from the 
friendly Indians, he set sail for Spain on Janu- 
ary 14, 1493. 



CHAPTER VII. 

HOMEWARD BOUND. 

The wind being light, they had to tow the cara- 
vel out of the harbor, and clear of the reefs all 
around it. They then stood eastward, towards a 
lofty promontory, to which Columbus gave the 
name of Monte Christo, by which it is still known. 
On January 6, 1493, the lookout at the masthead 
cried out that he saw the Pmta at a distance. The 
two vessels steered back to the bay. Pinzon 
went on board the Nina and stated to Columbus 
that owing to the storms he had been driven out 
of his course, and out of sight of his leader. The 
admiral accepted this explanation, fearing that a 
quarrel with Pinzon, whose townsmen and rela- 
tions formed the most part of the crew, might 
cause a mutiny, which would be fatal to the under- 
taking ; but in his diary he noted his belief in Pin- 
zon's bad faith. Pinzon had not found the gold 
he went in search of, but he had met with some 
natives and got, by bartering, a large quantity of 
gold-dust. Half of this he kept for himself, and 
half he gave to his crew as a bribe to them to say 
nothing about the matter. 

89 



90 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

A few days were spent in refitting the vessels 
for their homeward voyage. The Nina and the 
Plnta again set sail, coasting St. Domingo in an 
easterly direction as far as the Gulf of Samana. 
It was here that the first fight took place. The 
natives attacked an exploring party that had been 
sent out by Columbus. This was smoothed over. 
Pinzon had brought six Indians on board his ship, 
intending to carry them to Spain, to be sold as 
slaves. Columbus set them free, and sent them 
back with presents. 

On January i6, Columbus left Samana on his 
homeward course, from which, however, he turned, 
in the hope of finding the island peopled with 
Amazons, described by Marco Polo, of which he 
had heard something in St. Domingo. 

Such a discovery would be a full proof of his 
new country with Marco Polo's Indies, and when 
four natives offered to act as guides, he thought 
it worth while to steer (in the direction of Mar- 
tinique) in quest of the fabled Amazons. But the 
breeze blew towards Spain ; the crews grew 
homesick ; they grumbled at the length of the 
voyage among the currents and reefs of strange 
seas ; and at last Columbus gave up all idea of 
further discovery, and again took up his course 
for Europe. 

At first things went well ; but the adverse trade- 



92 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

winds, and the bad sailing of the Pinta delayed 
the progress of both vessels. On February 12, 
a storm came on, which became more and more 
furious, until on the 14th, it became a hurricane, 
and Pinzon's vessel could only drift helplessly, 
while the Niiia was able to keep ahead. In the 
evening both caravels were sailing under bare 
poles, and when darkness fell the signal light of 
the Pinta gleamed far off, until at last it could be 
seen no more. Then the panic-stricken crew 
gave up in despair, the winds howled louder and 
louder, and the sea burst over the frail vessel — 
then, indeed, without a single skilled sailor to ad- 
vise or to aid him, Columbus felt himself alone 
with the tempest and the night. But his brave 
heart kept up. As the stores were consumed, 
the Nina felt the want of ballast, which Columbus 
had intended to take on board at the Amazon 
Island. ''Fill the empty casks with water," said 
he, " and let them serve as ballast," a plan which 
has grown common enough now, but which then 
was probably original. 

Columbus* did all that human skill could sug- 
gest for the safety of his vessel ; and he prayed 
to Heaven for help. With his crew he drew lots 
to choose of one of their number to perform a 
pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady at Guada- 
loupe. He, himself, was chosen. Twice more 



HOMEWARD BOUND. 93 

were lots drawn, and once again the lot fell to 
Columbus. Then he and all the crew made a vow 
to go in procession to the first church dedicated 
to the Virgin which they should meet on reach- 
ing land. 

When he thought their chances of getting 
through the storm were small indeed, Columbus, 
fearing that the tidings of his discovery might 
finish with him, wrote out an account of his voyage 
on parchment, and this he tied up in wax and 
placed in a flask, which he threw out on the waves. 

On February 15th, the storm abated some, and 
at last they came in sight of land, which Colum- 
bus knew to be one of the Azores. As they 
could not make head against the waves and the 
sea, they lost sight of this island, but saw another, 
lying more to the south, round which they sailed 
on the night of the 17th, but lost an anchor in 
trying to bring up near the land. Next day they 
cast anchor, and learned from the people that 
they had reached the island of St. Mary, belong- 
ing to the Portuguese. The governor sent word 
to Columbus that he would visit him. But, to 
fulfil their vow, half the crew went, barefoot and 
in their shirts, on the pilgrimage to the chapel of 
St. Mary, which was not far from the harbor. The 
governor captured the whole band of pilgrims. 
Spain and Portugal were at this time at peace. 



94 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

but the governor thought the capture would please 

his king. Columbus could do nothing with the 

governor, and as the weather would not allow 

him to remain where he was, he put out to sea, 

with only three able seamen. On February 21, 

he came back, and showed his royal commission, 

and the eovernor restored the crew. On the 

24th, they again steered for Spain, but another 

tempest came on, which lasted for more than a 

week. 

In this last storm which rasped with destructive 

violence aloncr the west coast of the Continent of 
<_> 

Europe, and which drove the Pinta almost help- 
lessly towards a lee shore, the dangers of the 
voyage ended. " I escaped," says Columbus, " by 
the greatest miracle in the world." On the after- 
noon of March 4th, he came to anchor in the Tagus. 
To the King of Portugal, who happened to be 
near, he sent word of his arrival, and the result 
of his voyage, and in reply, he received a press- 
ing call to visit the Court. With this he thought 
proper to comply, ''in order not to show mistrust, 
although he disliked it," and was received by the 
King with great honors. The King put in a claim 
to the newly found land, which Columbus in the 
interest of his sovereign took care to repudiate as 
decidedly as possible. The King offered to trans- 
port Columbus by land, and to furnish a safe con- 




PRAYING FOR THE SEA TO SUBSIDE. 



95 



96 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

duct or band of troops. This Columbus refused. 
On March 13th, in the teeth of a bad wind and a 
heavy sea, he left Tagus for the Bar of Saltes, 
and safely reached his starting point at Palos on 
the 15th, again a Friday — having taken not quite 
seven months and a-half to accomplish this great- 
est of all maritime enterprises. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS AT PALOS. 

The triumphant return of Columbus was a great 
event in the history of the httle port of Palos, 
where everybody was more or less Interested In 
the fate of the expedition. The most Important 
and wealthy sea-captains of the place had engaged 
in it, and scarcely a family but had some relative 
or friend among the voyagers. The departure of 
the ships on what was thought a crazy cruise had 
spread gloom and dismay over the place ; and 
the storms which had rasped made this feellne 
worse. When they heard of the return, the whole 
people burst forth into a transport of joy. The 
bells were rung, and all the shops were closed ; 
and everywhere was bustle and excitement. 
Every member of the crew was looked upon as a 
hero. 

The Court was at Barcelona. Columbus sent 
a letter to the King and Queen, stating in general 
terms the success of his project ; and made ready 
to present himself in person to their highnesses. 
Almost at the same time, the Pinta reached the 

97 



98 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

port of Bayonne, and PInzon sent a letter telling 
of '*his" discoveries, and offering to come to 
Court and give full intelligence of them. He 
supposed that Columbus had been lost ; and 
when the King and Queen directed him not to 
come to Court without the admiral, chagrin and 
grief so overcame him that he took to his bed ; 
and if any man ever died of remorse and a broken 
heart, that man was Martin Alonzo Pinzon. 

The Court prepared a great reception for 
Columbus at Barcelona, where the people turned 
out in such numbers to see him that the streets 
could not contain them. A procession like this 
the world had never before seen. Here with 
Columbus were beings of a New World. Ferdi- 
nand and Isabella had their thrones placed in the 
presence of the assembled Court. Columbus 
approached the monarchs, and then, "his face 
beaming with modest satisfaction," he knelt at the 
King's feet, and begged leave to kiss their high- 
nesses' hands. They gave their hands ; then 
bade him rise and be seated before them. He 
told the events of his voyage, and concluded his 
story by showing what new things and new crea- 
tures he had brought with him. 

Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, and 
gave thanks to God with many tears ; and then 
the singers of the royal chapel closed the grand 




THE RECEPTION OF COLUMBUS. 



99 



loo CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

ceremony by singing the ''Te Deum." After- 
wards men walked home grave and yet happy, 
having seen the symbol of a great work, some- 
thing to be thought over for many a generation. 

A coat of arms, then a thing of much signifi- 
cance, was granted to him. In the shield are the 
Royal Arms of Castile and Leon. Nothing can 
better show the great favor which Columbus had 
obtained at Court by his discovery than such a 
grant. The title of Don was given to him and 
his descendants, and also to his brothers. ''All 
Hail!" was said to him on state occasions. 

The Sovereigns now applied to the Pope, to 
confer on the crowns of Castile and Leon the 
lands discovered and to be discovered in the 
Indies. To this application they received a favor- 
able answer. The Pope gave them ''high and 
royal jurisdiction, and imperial dignity and lord- 
ship over all that hemisphere." To preserve the 
peace between Spain and Portugal, the Pope 
divided the Spanish and Portuguese sovereignties 
by an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, 
three hundred miles west of the Azores and the 
Cape Verde Islands. 

Preparations were now made for a second voy- 
age to be undertaken by Columbus. A special 
department for the control of colonial affairs was 
placed under the charge of Juan Fonseca, an 




THE RETURN TO SPAIN. 



lOI 



I02 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

archdeacon of Seville, who afterwards rose to be 
a bishop, and finally was made patriarch of the 
Indies. Unfortunately for the poor savages whose 
fate he was now to influence so largely, Fonseca 
was a man who had but little of the mildness and 
forbearing spirit of Christianity. He was a shrewd 
business man, a hard taskmaster, and a sore 
enemy. In his dealings with the Indians he was 
a tyrant, and made them suffer more miseries than 
had ever before been brought upon a subject race. 
Jealous of the rivalry of Portugal, the Sover- 
eigns took every means to hasten the preparations 
for the second voyage. Twelve caravels and five 
smaller vessels were made ready, and were laden 
with horses and other animals, and with plants, 
seeds and machines for the cultivation of the new 
countries. Men of various trades were engaged, 
and a quantity of goods and gaudy trifles, fit for 
tradinor with the natives, were taken on board. 
There was no need to press men into the service 
now ; volunteers were too plenty. Columbus 
felt satisfied that he had been on the outskirts of 
Cathay, and that the land of gold was not far off 
Not one of the 1500 persons who took ship in 
this squadron but believed that he would reap a 
fortune as the reward of the voyage. Twelve mis- 
sionaries went along to convert and teach the 
faith to the Indians. 




I03 



I04 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

The instructions to Columbus, dated May 29, 
1493, "bid him to labor in all possible ways to 
bring the dwellers of the Indies to a knowledge 
of the Holy Catholic Faith." 

Among the noted men engaged in the second 
voyage was a young cavalier, named Don Alonzo 
Ojeda, known for his daring spirit ; and who 
made himself famous for many perilous expedi- 
tions and singular exploits among the early dis- 
coverers. He was of good family, and had served 
in the wars against the Moors. He was of small 
size, but well made, handsome, and of great 
strength and agility, and expert with all kinds of 
weapons ; a fine horseman, bold of heart, free of 
spirit, open of hand, fierce in fight, quick in brawl 
but ready to forgive and forget an injury. Las 
Casas makes him the hero of many wonderful 
tales. 

After receiving every mark of public honor and 
private regard, Columbus took leave of the Sov- 
ereigns on May 28, 1493. The whole Court fol- 
lowed him from the palace to his dwelling and 
attended also to pay him farewell honors on his 
departure from Barcelona to Seville. 

Difficulties between Spain and Portugal took 
some time in settlement, and it was not till Sep- 
tember 25 that Columbus started off on his 
second voyage of discovery. 



m 







»|^ 







SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 

The departure of Colum- 
bus on his second voyage 
presented a brilHant con- 
trast to the gloomy set out 
at Palos. On September 25, 
1493, ^t the dawn of day, the bay of Cadiz was 
whitened by his fleet. The squadron left Cadiz 
for the Canary Islands, and, after taking in pro- 
visions there, sailed from Ferro, on October 13. 
The voyage was a good one. There was but one 

105 



io6 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

storm, and that lasted only a few hours, and good 
breezes wafted them over calm seas so quickly 
that the ships sighted land on November 3, hav- 
ing made the voyage "by the goodness of God, 
and the wise skill of the admiral in as straight a 
track as if they had sailed by a well known and 
much gone over route." It was Sunday, and the 
name of Dominica was given to the first island to 
which they came. 

From Dominica, where no natives where found, 
Columbus sailed northward, calling one small 
island Maria Galante, after his own flagship, and 
calling a second and much larger one Guadaloupe, 
after a noted monastery in Spain. This island 
was peopled by a race of cannibals, and in their 
houses, human flesh was found roasting at the 
fire. A party was sent Into the interior, but so 
thickly was it wooded, that they lost their way in 
the jungle, and only got back to the ships after 
four days' wanderings, and when they had been 
given up by their companions, who feared they 
had become food for the savages. The men 
seemed to have been absent on a warlike raid, as 
the white men met only women and children, and 
several of these they brought along with them. 

Anxious to revisit the colony at Natividad 
(Nativity) Columbus sailed along as quickly as 
he could, and after passing and naming Montser- 



^^^^^ 



^ T^^' 



?^^^^ 






I 




BUILDING SHIPS AND HOUSES. 



107 



io8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

rat, Antigua, and Santa Cruz, reached a fertile 
island which he called St. John, but which is now 
known as Porto Rico. Here he found houses 
and roads ; and proofs that the natives were 
cannibals were everywhere to be seen. On Nov- 
ember 2 2, they reached Natividad. The little 
colony had been entirely destroyed. The fort 
was razed to the ground ; and not one was alive 
to tell the tale. It appeared they had taken to 
evil courses, fought among themselves, and finally 
were set upon when weak and few by an Indian 
chief named Caonabo, who burned the fort, and 
killed the garrison. It was in Caonabo's country 
that the gold mines were said to exist, and it is 
likely that the Spaniards had tried to reach and 
get at them. Guacanagari, the friendly Cacique, 
had done what he could to help them. He 
appeared to be not so friendly as he had been at 
first. He was willing to help build another fort, 
but Columbus thought it better to seek a new 
locality. The settlers had so offended the Indians 
that instead of thinking they came from heaven, 
as they did at first, they looked on them as bad 
men, against whom they had to defend their honor 
and their lives. 

Sailing along the coast of Hayti, Columbus 
fixed on a site for a new settlement about 40 miles 
to the east of the present Cape Haytien. This he 




I09 



no CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

called Isabella. Here the ships discharged their 
stores and the men built the first town in the 
New World. Diseases broke out. There were 
more men here than means to keep them. Food 
and medicines gave out. And, worst of all, none 
of the golden dreams were realized, under the 
influence of which they had left Spain. Anxiety, 
care, and labor began to tell on Columbus, and 
for some time he was stretched upon a bed of 
sickness. 

The women who were on board the ships 
cleared oft one night by dropping over the side of 
the vessels. Though the ships were anchored 
three miles from shore, these Indian women swam 
away as though the waves were their natural ele- 
ment. They were chased in boats, but managed 
to get to the beach. Four were taken and 
brought back. Others got away. In the morn- 
ine Guacanao^ari was not to be found. He had 
moved into the woods during the night. 

It was necessary to send most of the ships back 
to Spain. Columbus explained that they were 
not able to send any gold. The destruction of 
the garrison defeated all his hopes. His people 
had been ill ; they had to keep guard, etc. 

Ojeda now suggested that as Caonabo's land 
was only a four days' journey that a force of well- 
armed young men be sent there to see if these 



SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. iii 

gold mines actually existed. Columbus assented. 
Ojeda brought back word that there were signs of 
large natural wealth. Columbus reported this 
good news to Spain. 

Twelve ships were sent back ; in them he sent 
home as slaves the men, women and children 
taken in the Carribee Islands. Columbus boldly 
suggested that, for the good of the souls of these 
cannibal Indians, the more of them that could be 
taken the better ; and that, considering what quan- 
tities of live stock and other things would be 
required for the colony, a certain number of cara- 
vels should be sent each year with these neces- 
sary things, and the cargoes be paid for in slaves 
taken from among the cannibals, and that prepar- 
ations for capturing them could be carried on with 
more confidence, if the scheme seemed good to 
their highnesses. The Catholic Sovereigns would 
have been very glad to have received some money 
from the Indies ; money was always welcome to 
the King, and the purchase of wine, seeds and 
cattle was costly ; still this advice to establish 
slavery was wisely set aside. Scant fare and hard 
work were having their effect, sickness spread 
over the whole camp, and men of all ranks and 
stations, from the laborers to the priests and 
people of the Court, were forced to labor. The 
rage of the men, many of whom came out with the 



112 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

notion of finding gold ready for them on the sea- 
shore, may be imagined ; and complaints of the 
harsh way of dealing with them now took their 
rise, and pursued Columbus ever after to his 
ruin. 

A mutiny headed by Diaz was formed, with the 
Intention of seizing the ships. Diaz was sent for 
trial to Spain. 

The Spaniards gained very little from these gold 
mines which they began to work before they had 
brought around themselves the means of livine. 
The Spanish monarchs made things worse by or- 
derino- Columbus to oo on and make further dis- 
coveries. They were jealous of the Portuguese. 
The more rapidly each nation could advance and 
plant its flags, the more of much-coveted India it 
would be able to claim. Columbus left his bro- 
ther Diego In charge of the new colony and put 
out to sea again on April 24, 1494. 

In the course of this voyage Columbus made 
many important discoveries, among them Jamaica 
and the cluster of little islands called the '' Garden 
of the Queen." Sailing through these islands 
was so difficult that Columbus is said to have been 
32 days without sleep. The cares and privations 
he had undergone for many months seized upon 
him and deprived him for a time of his senses. 
The sailors turned the fleet homewards to Isa- 




''^^^^iS:^^ 



113 



114 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

bella, where they arrived September 29, 1494, 
having with them their helpless commander. 

On Columbus's arrival at Isabella, where he 
remained ill for five months, he found his brother 
Bartholomew. This gladdened him very much. 
Next came food, and all things needful for the 
colon)^ But the colony was in a bad state. The 
Indians were up in arms, and some of the prin- 
cipal persons went back to Spain in the ship 
which had brought out Bartholomew Columbus. 
Columbus had given orders to treat the Indians 
kindly, to buy their food if possible, and to cap- 
ture Caonabo and his brothers either by force 
or artifice. The men, however, went straggling 
over the country. Waste, rapine, injury and 
insult followed in their steps, and now there was 
but little hope of the two races living peacefully 
together. The Indians had "passed from terror 
to despair," and were swarming around the 
Spaniards with hostile intent, and but for the 
timely arrival of Columbus the settlement might 
again have been swept entirely away. 

Caonabo and another Cacique were marching on 
Isabella. Columbus started out and routed them 
atterly. He took a large part of them for slaves. 
On February 24, 1495, he sent back four ships 
chiefly laden with these slaves. It is said Caonabo 
brought over 100,000 men t© an attack. Colum- 



SECOND VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY. 115 

bus and his brother Bartholomew led two bands, 
attacking the Indians from two quarters. This 
great host was at once and utterly put to flight. 
In speaking of such a defeat the reader must 
bear in mind what it is to expose naked bodies 
to fire-arms, to a charge of steel-clad men on 
horseback, and to the clinging ferocity of blood- 
hounds. A ''horrible carnage" ensued upon the 
flight of the Indians. Those taken alive were 
made slaves. 

Caonabo escaped. Columbus sent Ojeda to 
cajole him into a friendly meeting, and so capture 
him. Ojeda brought with him some manacles 
made of brass or steel, finely wrought, and finely 
polished. The metals of Spain were as highly 
prized by the Indians as was their gold by the 
Spaniards. 

Ojeda brought these ornaments to Caonabo, 
and told him they were a present from the ad- 
miral ; that he would show him how to put them on; 
that then he would set him on his horse, and show 
him to his subjects, as the Kings of Spain showed 
themselves to theirs. The poor Indian fell into 
the trap. The manacles were placed on his hands, 
he was set on the horse, and Ojeda, jumping up 
behind him, darted off for Isabella, and brought 
him bound into the presence of Columbus. The 
Cacique was sent to Spain to be judged, and his 



ii6 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

forces put to flight by a troop of Spaniards. 
Many were killed ; some taken prisoners ; and 
many fled to the woods and mountains. 

Columbus now laid a tribute on all the natives. 
Every Indian above 14 years old was to pay 
every three months a little bellful of gold ; and 
all other persons were to pay a quantity of cotton 
for each person. Copper tokens were made, and 
were given to the Indians when they paid the 
tribute ; and these tokens were to be worn around 
the neck to show that the tribute had been paid. 
The Indians did not know how to collect the gold 
and the tribute had to be changed ; and service 
was taken instead. Indolent in character and in- 
capable of hard work, the Indian regarded this 
labor as slavery. 

Columbus was not a cruel man ; we know he 
was a very pious one ; but early in life he had made 
voyages along the coast of Africa, and he was 
accustomed to a slave trade. Besides he wanted 
to reduce the expenses of these Indian posses- 
sions and make good his promises that advantage 
would flow to Spain from the Indies. 

Complaints of the harsh dealings of Columbus 
had reached the King and Queen, and they sent 
over a man to inquire into the troubles. He 
found lots of complaint both from the settlers and 
the Indians. Columbus now concluded that he 




AGAIN IN SPAIN. 



117 



ii8 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

would go to Spain and fight his own battles be- 
fore the Court. His voyage over was a bad one. 
They had stormy winds until the food began to 
run short, and rations were doled out in small 
lots, which grew smaller and smaller until Colum- 
bus had all he could do to keep the Spaniards from 
killing and eating the Caribs who were on board. 
At last when famine was on them, after a voyage 
of three months, they landed on June ji, 1496, 
at Cadiz. 

After a month's delay, Columbus got orders to 
come to Court, which was then at Burgos. In 
his journey he tried to dazzle the eyes of the peo- 
ple by the display of gold, and by showing his 
captives as he did on his return from his first 
voyage ; but so many colonists had come back 
sick at heart, and ruined in health, that this pro- 
cession was very unlike the first one in the 
welcome he received. 

He was well received by the sovereigns, who 
listened with sympathy to the story of his diffi- 
culties, and heard with much satisfaction his story 
of the discovery of the mines from which much 
was hoped for. 



CHAPTER X. 

CRIMINALS SENT TO THE INDIES. 

During the two years that followed from the 
time Columbus left Hayti in 1496 till his return 
there in 1498 many things happened on both 
sides of the Atlantic which require telling. In 
1496 Bartholomew Columbus sent 300 slaves to 
Spain. He told the sovereigns that some Ca- 
ciques were killing the Spaniards, and their high- 
ness had sent reply, that all of those who should 
be found guilty should be sent to Spain. If this 
meant the common Indians as well as the Ca- 
ciques, the question of selling them with a safe 
conscience was already settled. 

In 1497, on the advice of Columbus to the sov- 
ereigns, all criminals were to be sent to the Indies. 
He was greatly ashamed of this advice later, for 
three years afterwards he says, *' I swear that 
numbers of men have gone to the Indies who did 
not deserve water from God or man." 

There was one part of Hayti into which the 
Spaniards had not yet entered. It was called 
Xaragua, and was ruled by a Cacique, whose 

119 



I20 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

sister was the wife of Caonabo. Bartholomew 
marched here with loo men ; and found an im- 
mense army of Indians drawn up to oppose his 
progress. Bartholomew made signs to them that 
his errand was one of peace, and the good-natured 
Indians brought him to their city, and feasted him 
and his troop. He then demanded tribute. The 
Cacique pleaded that there was no gold in his 
land ; so it was settled that they should pay trib- 
ute in cotton, and cazabi-bread. 

On Bartholomew's return he found that nearly 
300 men had djed of disease ; and there was 
great lack of food. He placed the sick in the 
fortresses and in the Indian villages, and set out 
to St. Domingo, collecting tribute by the way. 
In all these proceedings, and still more from 
causes over which he had no control, the Span- 
iards suffered much. They grumbled loudly at 
the labors that were forced upon them ; and the 
Indians still more justly of the tribute placed on 
them. The Indians got together and rose as one 
man to get rid of the Spaniards, but, of course, 
they could do but little. The chief movers in 
this revolt were put to death. 

Roldan, a man who was under great obligations 
to Columbus for having raised him from poverty 
and obscurity, and whom he made justice of the 
peace before his departure, caused great trouble 




121 



122 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

during the absence of the admiral. The brothers 
of Columbus were very unpopular, and Roldan 
tried to ruin them both, and work his way to the 
command of the colony. Finding the people full 
of murmurs about hard treatment, severe toil, and 
the long absence of Columbus, he made believe 
to be moved by their distresses. He formed a 
plan with some others to get rid of Diego and 
Bartholomew, promising his followers a life of 
ease and pleasure ; sharing equally all they might 
gain by barter in the island, employing the In- 
dians to work as slaves for them, and enjoying 
themselves with the Indian women. 

Diego got word of what was going on but did 
not dare risk an open fight. He sent Roldan to 
the Vega with forty men. Roldan's idea was to 
surprise the fort at Conception, and by getting 
hold of that post and the rich country around it, 
to defy Diego and his brother. 

The fortress was small ; but was in charge of 
a staunch and brave old soldier, and Roldan was 
unable to take it. The natives were flocking round 
Roldan's banner. Bartholomew marched to put 
down these rebels ; but knowing that his men 
had listened to the wily offers of Roldan, he was 
not sure of their loyalty. Such was the state of 
affairs when Coronal with three ships bringing 
supplies and troops landed at St. Domingo. 



124 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

Coronal tried to win back this bold bad man, 
but Roldan was afraid of Bartholomew Columbus 
and would not venture on a return. He set out 
for Xaragua. He had meetings with the Caciques 
and it was decided to attack and kill all the sol- 
diers, who were spread in small parties around the 
village. The night of the full moon was fixed 
upon for the attack. 

One of the Caciques, who knew nothing of the 
heavenly bodies, took up arms before the agreed 
upon time and was beaten by the soldiers. The 
alarm was thus given, and the Spaniards were on 
the alert. The villages were burned, and the 
Indians scattered. Some fled to the mountains, 
where they were soon brought to terms. 

Roldan got away ; and now the poor natives 
were sorely harassed between the rebels and the 
loyal Spaniards. 



CHAPTER XI. 

THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 

Columbus set sail from the port of San Lucar 
on May ^o, 1498, with 6 vessels and 200 men, 
besides the sailors. France and Spain were now 
at war, and Columbus in this voyage was obliged 
to avoid the French ships that were sailing in 
those seas. From the Canary Islands he sent three 
of thq ships direct to Hayti, saying in his letters 
that he was going to the Cape Verde Islands, 
and thence, " in the name of the Sacred Trinity," 
would sail southwards, until he should come 
under the equinoctial line, in the hope of being 
"guided by God to discover something which 
may be to His service ; for I believe," he adds, 
" that no one ever has traversed this way, and that 
this sea is nearly unknown." 

With one ship and two caravels, he reached the 
Cape Verde Islands on June 27, and quitted them 
on July 4, having been in the midst of such a 
dense fog, that, as he says, "it might have been 
cut with a knife." Then he sailed south-west. 
When he had gone about 360 miles he found 

I2x 



126 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

fields of floating sea-weed. The wind now stop- 
ped, and the heat was awful; so great, that nobody 
dared go below. This heat lasted eight days. The 
first day was clear, and if the others had been 
like it, Columbus says, not a man could have been 
left alive ; they would all have been burned up. 

At last a breeze sprang up and they sailed off 
in a westerly course. On July 22, flocks of birds 
were seen eoino- from the south-west to the north- 
east, a sign that land was not far off. Still they 
saw no land ; and were much in need of fresh 
water. On July 31, Alonzo Perez went aloft on 
the maintop-sail of the ship and saw land, about 
50 miles off. This land was described as in the 
form of three lofty hills, which Columbus named 
Trinidad. 

The sailors sang the '' Salve Regina," and other 
pious hymns with joy. As he neared these shores 
Columbus noticed that the trees grew well on the 
margin of the seas. There were houses and 
people ; and the lands were cultivated. This was 
August I, 1498. From the point where he now 
was the lands of the Orinoco must have been 
visible, and he must have beheld the continent of 
America for the first time. (The northern part of 
this continent had been discovered by Sebastian 
Cabot on June 24, 1497.) 

Before entering the gulf Columbus sought to 




PEARL FISHERS. 



127 



128 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

make friends with some Indians who came out in 
a large canoe, by ordering the men to come on 
deck, and dance to the sound of a tambourine ; 
but this, naturally enough, was thought to be a 
warlike move, and it was answered by a flight of 
arrows from the Indians. At last he arrived at a 
place called by the natives Paria. They told him 
the country to the west was full of people. He 
took four of these natives, and went on till he came 
to a point, which he named Needle Point, where, 
he says, he found "the most beautiful lands, and a 
great number of canoes came off to the ships." 

Going on, Columbus came to a place where 
the women had pearl bracelets. Asking where 
these came from they pointed to Paria. Here he 
sent some of his men on shore, and they were 
very well received. But he was anxious to get 
to Haytl, to see after his colonists there, and 
bring them the stores which he had in charge. 

The discovery of the continent of America by 
Columbus on this third voyage was the result of 
his Intention to discover some new land, and 
cannot be attributed to chance. His theory was 
that the earth was not a perfect sphere, but pear- 
shaped ; and he thought that, as he sailed west- 
ward in this voyage, the sea went gradually rising, 
and his ships rising too, until they came nearer 
to the heavens. 



THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 129 

It is very likely that this theory had been long- 
in his mind, and that he held it before he reached 
the coast of Paria. He found the temperature 
much more moderate than might have been ex- 
pected so near the equinoctial line, far more mod- 
erate than it was on the opposite coast of Africa. 
In the evenings it was necessary for him to wear 
an outer garment of fur. Then the natives were 
lighter in color, more astute and braver than 
those of the islands. Their hair, too, was different. 

Then he thought of the great volume of fresh 
waters that came down into the Gulf of Paria. 
The conclusion that his pious mind came to was 
that he had reached the base of the earthly para- 
dise. He thought that the continent which he had 
found was the same continent of the east that he 
had always been in search of; and that the 
waters which we now know to be a branch of the 
river Orinoco, formed one of the four great rivers 
which came from the garden of Paradise. 

Very different were the views of the pilots. 
Some said they were in the Sea of Spain ; others, 
the Sea of Scotland ; and being in despair about 
their whereabouts, they concluded that they had 
been under the guidance of the devil. Columbus 
stuck to it that he had discovered the site of the 
earthly paradise. He told his men that they were 
in the richest country in the world. 



I30 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

Columbus did not forget to claim, with all due 
form, the possession of his approach to paradise, 
for his employers, the Catholic Sovereigns. When 
he landed at Paria he took possession of the coast 
in their names, putting up a great cross upon the 
shore. In telling this to the monarchs he reminds 
them how they bade him to go on with the enter- 
prise, if he should discover only stones and rocks, 
and had told him they counted the cost for nothing, 
so long as the faith would be increased and their 
dominions widened. 

It was, however, no poor finding of " rocks and 
stones " which Columbus had now made. He 
says, ''I found some lands, the most beautiful in 
the world, and very populous. " Of the people he 
said, ''They are all of good stature, well made, 
and of very graceful bearing, with much and 
smooth hair." 

It is curious that Columbus does not mention 
his discovery of pearls to the monarchs, and he 
afterwards made a poor excuse for this. The 
real reason is supposed to have been a wish to 
keep this knowledge to himself, that the fruits of 
this journey might not be snatched from him. 
The gains to be made on the pearl coast were, 
probably, the most tempting bait for future cap- 
tains to follow In the track of Columbus and com- 
plete the discovery of the earthly paradise. 



THIRD VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS. 131 

Of the delights of this paradise Columbus him- 
self was to have but a slight and mocking foretaste. 
He was sick during the whole voyage, suffering 
from gout and from sore eyes which made him 
almost blind. His new colony in Hayti claimed 
his attention and was the cause of anxious thought 
to him ; and the grave but glowing advocate 
made his way to St. Domingo, and afterwards 
returned to Spain, to be vexed henceforth by 
those mean miseries and small disputes which 
followed him to the end of his days — miseries the 
more galling as they were so small compared 
with the greatness of the man, and with the aims 
and hopes which they effectually hindered. 



CHAPTER XII. 

COLUMBUS IN CHAINS. 

On August 30, 1498, Columbus reached Hayti, 
where he found everything in confusion. He 
thought at first that the bad will of Roldan and 
his party was chiefly directed against his brother, 
and he hoped to patch up a peace, and be able 
to send this word back to Spain. But it was not so 
to be. The five vessels left St, Domingo, bearing 
no good news of peace and amity, but laden with 
many hundreds of Indian slaves, which had been 
taken in the following manner : Some Cacique 
failed to perform the personal services put upon 
him and his people, and fled to the forests. They 
were pursued, and the captured put as slaves in 
these ships. Columbus in his letters to the sover- 
eigns speaks of the money to be made out of 
these slave dealings, and from the sale of log- 
wood. 600 slaves were sent in these five ships, 
of which 200 were to go to the masters of the 
vessels as payment of freight. 

In these letters Columbus spoke after the fash- 
132 



w&m- 




133 



134 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

ion of the regular slave dealer. " The masters 
of the vessels were to receive slaves from the 
colonists, were to carry them to Spain and pay 
for feeding them during the voyage ; they were 
then to allow the colonists so much money, pay- 
able at Seville. This money was to be spent as 
the colonists directed, who would thus be able to 
obtain such goods as they needed." He always 
urged upon the sovereigns that the colonists 
should be allowed to make use of the services of 
the Indians for a year or two, until the colony 
should be in a settled state. He did not wait for 
the royal authority, and this led to a new form of 
farming out the natives. 

After great trouble the disputes between Rol- 
dan's rebels and Columbus were after two years' 
bargaining brought to an end. Roldan kept his 
place as justice ; and his friends received lands 
and slaves ; and Columbus ordered that the 
Cacique and his people should till these lands. 
Fifteen of Roldan's party chose to return to 
Spain ; they received two or three slaves each, 
and they were sent home, in October,. i499- 

On their arrival in Spain the Queen was greatly 
angered, and said Columbus had no right to give 
her vassals to anyone. She ordered that all 
persons in Seville, Granada, and other places who 
had Indians given to them should, under pain of 




135 



136 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

death, send them back to Hayti. Only the Indians 
taken in war could be made slaves. 

Everybody would be sorry to take away any 
honor from Isabella ; but it would have been 
better if she had forbid the sending of the Indians 
as slaves, on any pretext whatever. 

Columbus had now settled the Roldan revolt, 
and other smaller ones ; he had reduced the 
Indians to subjection, the mines were prospering, 
the Indians were brought together in the villages, 
so that they might better be taught the Christian 
faith, and serve as vassals to the Crown, and the 
royal revenues would, he thought, in three years, 
amount to $7,500,000. 

He had hardly enjoyed a month of rest, when 
that evil came down upon him which ''poured the 
juice of aloes into the rest of his life." 

The Sovereigns up to this time had behaved 
well to Columbus. He had bitter enemies at 
Court; and they were for ever saying he was 
doing wrong. When the five vessels from St. 
Domingo reached Spain with the news of Roldan's 
revolt, and the other troubles, they resolved to 
end this clamor and to suspend Columbus. 

In July, 1500, they sent over Bobadilla with 
orders that the government and all arms and 
fortresses should be turned over to him. He 
reached Hayti on August 23, 1500, It was a 



COL UMB US IN CHAINS. 1 3 7 

great pity and a sad mistake of judgment that 
this man was fixed upon as agent. He was a man 
of very narrow mind. The first thing he did was to 
take possession of the admiral's house, and then 
summon him before him, sending him the royal 
letter. Neither Columbus nor his brothers made 
any resistance, and Bobadilla, with stupid tyu- 
tality, put them in chains and sent them home 
to Spain. 

Charges came thickly against Columbus ; '* the 
stones rose up against him and his brothers." 
The people told how he had made them work, 
even sick men, at his fortresses, at hfs house, at 
the mills and other buildings, how he had starved 
them, condemned ihem to be whipped for slight 
causes. Then they went on to other grounds, 
such as his not having baptized Indians "because 
he desired slaves rather than .Christians," that he 
had unjustly made war on the Indians so that he 
could make slaves to send to Spain. 

Poor Columbus! His chains lay very heavily 
upon him. He would not have them taken off 
except by royal command, and would ever keep 
them by him (*T always saw them in his room," 
says his son Ferdinand), ordering that they should 
be buried with him. 

We have now come to the end of Columbus's 
tale in the Indies. Whatever we may think of his 



I3S 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 



general policy, we cannot but regret his removal 
at this time, when there seemed to be some chance 
of making a solid government, though we must 
honestly admit that the Sovereigns, with such 



fi 




JEERED AT IN THE STREETS. 

evidence as they had before them, were far from 
wrong in recalling him, had it been done in a 
manner worthy of his and their greatness. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

COLUMBUS PLEADS HIS CASE AT COURT. 

The career of Columbus had already been 
marked by strong contrasts. First, a ''pauper 
pilot," then the ruler of a New World, now hoping 
and fearing, low-spirited, and full of joy, he had 
passed through strange changes of good and 
evil fortune. But no two events of his life stand 
out so strong as his return to Spain after his 
first voyage and his return now. He was then a 
conqueror, he was now a prisoner. To the com- 
mon people, the broad fact was this : Columbus 
had given Spain a New World ; Spain loaded him 
with fetters in return. Public opinion began to 
change in his favor. The nation became con- 
scious of ingratitude to its benefactor. The nobil- 
ity were shocked at the insult to one of their order. 

When the Sovereigns learned from Columbus 
of his arrival, and of his disgrace, they ordered 
that he be liberated at once, summoned him to 
their Court at Granada, sending him money to 
enable him to proceed there in a style fitting his 
rank. They received him with all possible favor, 
denied Bobadilla's acts, and promised him pay- 
ment and satisfaction. They refused to inquire 

139 



140 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

into the charges against him, and dismissed them 
as not worthy of investigation. 

But though the Sovereigns acted thus promptly 
n Columbus's behalf, they were secretly glad 
hat he had been removed. On each fresh dis- 
covery King Ferdinand repented more and more 
on having promised him one-eighth of the profits 
of the newly found lands. He thought that 
Columbus when once master of the great wealth 
that he supposed to be really within his grasp, 
would become more powerful than his master, and 
might throw off his allegiance altogether. Here 
was the chance to get rid of his bargain, by re- 
fusing on grounds of State policy, to put him 
back as ruler. Isabella, who had always been his 
firm friend, would not have thrown him over, but 
while the colonists were excited against him, it 
would be prudent that some one else should rule 
in his place. 

The Queen granted Columbus a private hear- 
ing. He told his story with such simple eloquence, 
so pathetically, that his warm-hearted mistress 
was moved to tears by the recital. He told her 
of the difficulties he had met, and the dealings of 
the enemies who had always been thwarting him. 
He pleaded that he had to create a line of con- 
duct for himself, having to deal with new circum- 
stances without any previous rule to guide him. 




PLEADING HIS CASE. 



141 



142 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

He begged the Queen to believe that the charges 
poured in against him were prompted by jealousy, 
and had no solid foundation in fact. 

Isabella replied in a very sensible speech, telling 
him that she fully valued his services, and knew 
the rancor of his enemies, but she was afraid he 
had given some cause of complaint. "Common 
report," she said, "accuses you of acting with a 
degree of severity quite unsulted to an infant 
colony, and likely to excite rebellion there. But 
the matter on which I find it hardest to give you 
my pardon, is your conduct in making slaves of 
so many Indians who had done nothing to deserve 
such a fate. This was against my express orders. 
Just then, when I heard of this breach of my in- 
structions, everybody was complaining of you, and 
no one spoke a word in your favor. I felt obliged 
to send an officer to look into these charges. I 
find I made a bad choice in my agent, and I will 
take care to make an example of Bobadilla, which 
shall serve as a warninof to others not to exceed 
their powers. I cannot promise to re-instate you 
at once. As to your rank of admiral, I never 
intended to deprive you of it. But you must 
bide your time and trust in me." 

It was fixed that the new governor should be 
appointed for two years only, and at the end of 
that time that Columbus might be trusted with 




BLOODHOUNDS ATTACKING THE NATIVES. 



143 



144 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

the rule again. Ferdinand thought something 
might happen in that time to prevent Columbus 
ever being re-appointed. The words of Ovando's 
appointment were " that he is to be the governor 
as long as It is their Highnesses' will and pleasure." 

Bobadilla was to be at once dismissed. His 
first object was to find the gold, and to secure 
this, he assigned all the natives as slaves to the 
colonists. A large number of the latter were 
the scourlngs of the Spanish prisons ; they treated 
their wretched helots with savage brutality. Four 
times the amount of gold was got under Bobadllla's 
rule than under that of Columbus. 

But when the Sovereigns heard of the cruelties 
which that system involved they urged forward 
the departure of Ovando, whom they had selected 
to be governor, and who, to judge from his pre- 
vious career, was a man well fitted to rule with 
justice and mercy ; and was known to hold all 
avarice and covetousness in much aversion. 
Among his orders from Isabella was one "that 
all the Indians in Hayti should be free from ser- 
vitude, and be unmolested by any one, and that 
they should live as free vassals, ruled and pro- 
tected by justice, as were the vassals of Castile." 
Like the vassals in Spain, the Indians were to pay 
tribute ; they were also to assist In getting gold, 
but for this they were to be paid daily wages. 




145 



146 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

It was fixed that all those who received pay from 
the government in the Indies, as well those 
who went out with Bobadilla as those who had 
come out originally with Columbus, should return 
to Spain, and a new set to replace them should go 
out with Ovando. This was done because most 
of the soldiers and sailors had been mixed up in 
the troubles, and it would be a good plan to start 
fresh. No Jews, Moors, or new converts were to 
go to the Indies, or be permitted to stay there ; 
but negro slaves "born in the power of the 
Christians were allowed to pass to the Indies, and 
the officers of the royal revenue were to receive 
the money to be paid for their permits." This 
is the first notice with respect to negroes. These 
orders were given in the year 1501. 

Ovando was directed to, first of all, look to 
what concerns the reverence of God and his wor- 
ship ; to put only good men in office ; the people 
were not to be overtaxed ; that free audience was 
to be given to all ; that he should encourage those 
who worked, and discourage the idle, as the uni- 
versal Father does. 

With these orders, Ovando left San Lucas, on 
February 13, 1503, with 2500 persons, a large part 
being hidalgos, that is, noblemen of the lowest 
class. He met a terrible storm on his way, and 
lost one of his largest vessels; and had some 



COLUMBUS PLEADS HIS CASE. 147 

difficulty in reaching St. Domingo at all, arriving 
on April 15, 1501, and began reforms at once. 

He announced that Bobadilla was put under 
limits, and he had Roldan arrested. He tried to 
found settlements along the coast, and to carry 
out the just directions he had received with 
regard to the Indians. Like Bobadilla he was a 
knight of a religious order, and had a narrow way 
of looking at things ; he had no special culture 
that we know of, and but little originality of char- 
acter. Columbus had always treated the Indians 
with consideration and humanity; Ovando soon 
began to rule them with a rod of iron. 

The Queen of Xaragua, whom Bartholomew 
Columbus tells us was a wise woman, of good 
manners, and pleasing address, received Ovando 
in great state. "She brought our men into the 
common hall, and had games, and feasts, and 
mock fights." 

At this time (1503) some of Roldan's former 
followers had settled in Xaragua, and were a great 
trouble to the colony; and as might be expected 
there were constant rows between these Span- 
iards and the nearby Indians; and the Spaniards 
told the governor that these Indians intended to 
rebel. Perhaps they did so intend. Ovando set 
out for Xaragua, which was 200 miles from St. 
Domingo, with 70 horsemen and 300 soldiers. The 



148 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

Queen met him and they spent some days In 
singing and dancing. But Ovando believed that 
an insurrection was intended, and with these 
thoughts in his mind, he got up a tournament, 
keeping the soldiers ready for action. The Queen 
fell into the snare. She invited all the Caciques 
to see the sports. Meanwhile the horsemen 
and soldiers surrounded the building. When 
Ovando made a sign they were to rush in and 
bind the Caciques and the Queen. They were 
all secured. The Queen alone was led out, the 
quarters were set fire to, and all the chiefs burned 
alive. The Queen was afterwards hanged, and 
the province was desolated. The followers of 
Roldan were then collected and formed a town, 
which was named the "City of true peace." 

Columbus all this time was chafing at the idle 
life which was forced upon him. He formed a 
theory that some strait existed through which a 
passage might be made from St. Domingo to 
those regions in Asia, from which the Portuguese 
were just beginning to reap a large profit, and 
which must be very near that home of the gold 
which had always filled his thoughts. He pressed 
the Sovereigns for ships to find this strait. After 
some delays, and the usual bickerings he got the 
word: "We beg you to set out as soon as 
possible." 




149 




CHAPTER XIV. 



NEW ENTERPRISES. 



On May 9, 1502, Columbus started out from 
Cadiz, with his brother, Bartholomew, and his 
second son, Fernando. On June 13, he reached 
Martinique. His orders were that he should not 
visit St. Domingo; but finding his largest ship 
needed repairs, he paid no heed to the prohibition, 
and sent a boat to ask Ovando to let him have 
a vessel in exchange for his damaged one, and 
to allow his ships to take refuge in the harbor 
during a hurricane which he foresaw was soon to 
come up. 

Ovando refused both requests. He had a fleet 
ready to depart for Spain. This fleet was the 
richest in cargo that had ever left the islands. It 
had all the gold that Bobadilla had wrung out of 

150 




QUIETING THE GRUMBLERS. 



151 



152 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

the natives by his harsh measures. One nugget 
was the largest piece of virgin gold ever discover- 
ed. It was valued at <g2000. Ferdinand and 
Isabella would get enough to nearly repay them 
for all their expenses on the new colony — if this 
fleet reached Spain in safety. 

A terrible tornado came on ; and of all the 
ships, only one, — and that the frailest of the fleet, 
reached Spain. Some of the vessels put back in 
distress to the island ; but the greater number 
were lost at sea. The ship that carried Ovando's 
property reached Spain safely. Bobadilla, Rol- 
and, and their associates in cruelty and plunder, 
all were lost with their ill-gotten gains. 

Columbus sailed along the coast, passing Ja- 
maica. For nine weeks he made so little progress 
that his crews began to clamor to give up the 
expedition. The ships were worm-eaten and leaky, 
and food was running low. He argued that it 
was better to go on than to remain beating about 
the isles waiting to return home. On the coast 
of Honduras there appeared a canoe, more like 
"he ships of the Old World than any they had yet 
seen, manned by twenty-five Indians, who had 
come from the Continent on a trading voyage 
among the islands. They had cotton fabrics, iron- 
wood swords, flint knives, copper axe-heads, and 
a fruit called cacoa, which made a good beverage. 







»S3 



154 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 

Columbus treated these people kindly, and v;on 
their good will by giving them some of the glitter- 
ing toys which never failed to dazzle the savage eye. 

Columbus picked out an old Indian to go with 
him as a pilot. This Indian made signs that there 
was a land not far distant where there were ships, 
and arms, and goods similar to the Spaniards' ; 
and said he could lead him there. 

Had Columbus followed his first intention, and 
steered to the west, a few hours would have 
brought him to Yucatan ; and the riches of Mex- 
ico would have rewarded his discovery. But this 
savage crossed his path at the critical moment, 
and turned him from the road to fortune. 

Steering along the coast of Honduras, on 
September 12, he reached Cape Gracias. In 
October, he entered several of the bays on the 
Isthmus of Panama. Here he got food, and 
fixed up his vessels ; but no signs of the kingdom 
of the great Khan, or the strait, which he fancied 
might lead him there. Upon his mooring his 
vessels close to the shore, the Indians attacked 
him, and were only repulsed by the guns, the thun- 
der and lightning of which in their eyes possessed 
sacred character. He had a meeting with one of 
the tribes, who showed great alarm when the no- 
tary made notes of the talk. They had never seen 
writing, and it had a magic effect on them. 




155 



156 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

It was not until December 5, that Columbus 
could resolve to give up his easterly course. He 
had scarcely turned back, intending to settle on 
the river Veragua, when he ran into a furious 
storm. Thunder and lightning were incessant; 
the waterspouts (the first they had seen) threat- 
ened to eno-ulf them ; hucre crests of waves burst 
in floods over them ; and their escape was little 
less than a miracle. After eight days tossing to 
and fro, he gained the mouth of a river. 

Here was a powerful Cacique, named Quibia, 
in whose lands was much gold, and with him the 
Spaniards were eager to treat. But he outwitted 
them. Offering to supply them with guides to 
his mines, he really sent them to the mines of a 
rival Cacique. Here, they succeeded by barter, 
in getting large quantities of gold, which seemed 
so abundant, that Columbus made sure that he 
had come to that place where Solomon obtained 
the gold for the Temple at Jerusalem. He saw 
more signs of gold here in two days than he had 
seen in St. Domingo in four years. 

He started to form a settlement to provide a 
depot for the gold which might be collected. A 
village of huts was built where ^o of the crew were 
to remain while Columbus returned to Spain 
for supplies. 

News came to them that the village was to be 




157 



158 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

attacked, so Columbus took means to capture 
Ouibia in his own palace. The Indians, dismayed 
at the capture of the Cacique, offered large lots 
of gold for his ransom ; but he was kept as a 
hostage for peace. As he was being brought 
down the river, in one of the boats, he managed, 
though bound hand and foot, and in charge of a 
powerful Spaniard, to spring overboard, and to 
make his escape, swimming under water to the 
shore. There w^as now war to the knife, between 
the natives and the settlers. An attempt Avas 
made to burn down the village by means of 
blazing arrows. A boat's crew of eleven Span- 
iards were attached by savages in canoes, and 
only one man escaped to tell of the massacre. 

Columbus with three of the caravels was wait- 
ing for a good wind for his departure. The dry 
weather made the river so shallow that the cara- 
vel left with the settlers could not cross the bar. 
They were in despair ; for if they were left, they 
knew they were left to perish. Columbus became 
uneasy at not hearing from them ; not knowing 
that their only good boat had been destroyed by 
the Indians. Some of Quibia's family who had 
been taken on board the fleet as prisoners, made 
their escape by swimming to the shore, three 
miles off. This feat encouraged one of the pilots 
to undertake a similar exploit. There never was 



NEW ENTERPRISES. 159 

a man more welcomed. News of the desperate 
state of affairs was got to Columbus and in a few 
days all the settlers were taken on board the 
fleet. 

Making his way to Porto Bello, where he left 
one of the ships as no longer seaworthy, May 31, 
1503, Columbus quitted the coast and steered for 
Cuba. Two of his ships collided, making them 
more unfit to cope with the squalls and breakers. 
At last in the middle of June, with his crews in 
despair, his vessels worm-eaten, so as to be "as 
full of holes as a honeycomb," he reached Cuba, 
when he got food from the friendly natives. 

Failing to make head against the wind so as to 
reach Hayti, Columbus shaped his course for 
Jamaica, and there his voyage ended. As his 
ships could not float any longer, he ran them on 
shore, side by side, and built huts upon the decks 
for housing the crews. These houses also made 
good positions in case of attack by a hostile tribe. 
No Spaniard was to go ashore without leave. 
Diego Mendez, one of the boldest of the officers, 
marched into the interior of the island to arrange 
for food supplies, from some remote tribes. The 
natives brought fish, game, and cazava-bread in 
trade for toys and ornaments. 

The Spaniards were thus secured from starva- 
tion, for the present, but their position was a hard 



i6o CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

one. Between Columbus and Haytl was a strait 
1 20 miles in breadth, full of tumbling breakers 
and rushing currents, which separated the two 
Islands. Attempts to cross had to be made, and 
Mendez agreed to try it, though "he thought it 
not merely difficult, but impossible to cross in so 
small a vessel as a canoe." He had a letter to 
Ovando, asking him to send a vessel to release 
the castaways, and a dispatch to the Sovereigns, 
giving a glowing description of the riches of 
Veraofua. 

Mendez and a comrade set out along the coast in 
a canoe manned by six Indians. They were met by a 
tribe of savages, who carried them off as captives. 
The beads and toys which Mendez had taken with 
him to barter with the natives, took the whole 
attention of his conquerors, and while they were 
settling the shares of the spoil, Mendez managed 
to escape to his canoe, and return in safety to his 
companions. A second canoe was got ready, and 
Mendez this time took a big enough force to 
protect him from the hostile tribes. ! 

On July 7, 1503, the armed escort started oft, 
and reached Haytl three days later. They suffer- 
ed for want of fresh water. One more day's labor 
at the oar brought them to Cape Tiburon where 
Mendez left his companions, and went on alone 
to St. Domingo. He was told that Ovando had 




101 



1 62 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

gone to Xaragua, and there he made his way 
alone through fifty miles of wild forest to show 
Ovando the need of sending relief at once to 
Columbus. 

Ovando dreaded the return of Columbus. He 
took no active steps in the matter himself, and it 
was only with reluctance that he allowed Mendez 
to proceed to St. Domingo, and buy a ship on 
behalf of Columbus, and bring him off 

Meanwhile, month after month went by, the 
castaways getting no news from Hayti. At last, 
in January, 1504, the murmurs against the inaction 
of Columbus broke out into open mutiny. The 
captain of one of the ships told Columbus that he 
thought he was afraid to return to Spain, but they 
had determined to wait no longer but to go at 
once. On this there were shouts of, '* To Castile ! 
We follow !" 

Taking possession of the canoes, the mutineers 
set out for Hayti, leaving Columbus and his 
brother with scarcely any but those whose sickness 
prevented them from going along. They seized 
on all the food they could get, telling the owners 
that Columbus would pay for it. The attempts to 
cross over failed on account of the rough weather. 
So the rebels gave up the idea of reaching Hayti 
and roamed over the island, quartering themselves 
on the Indians, and committing every possible 




163 



i64 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

excess. This conduct strained the relations be- 
tween Columbus and the natives. The good will 
they first showed to the white men gave way to 
contempt and hatred, and they refused to supply 
their wants any longer ; famine was now before 
them. 

Just at this last extremity Columbus, ever fertile 
in devices, thought of a way of regaining his in- 
fluence over the Indians. He knew that an eclipse 
of the moon would soon take place. He invited 
all the Caciques to visit him. Then he said, " The 
God who protects me will punish you. You know 
what has happened to my people who have re- 
belled against me. My followers crossed to Hayti 
without trouble ; while the others suffered no end 
of dangers. Soon, too, shall the divine wrath 
fall on you ; this very night the moon shall change 
her color, and lose her light, as a mark of what 
will fall upon you from the skies." 

The night was fine ; the moon shone down in 
full splendor. But the change took place as Col- 
umbus had foretold, and the wild howls of the 
savages showed their terror. They promised he 
should want for nothing if he would only avert 
this judgment ; and they hastily collected a quan- 
tity of food, and laid it at his feet. He consented 
to pray for them ; and soon the terrible shadow 
passed away from the face of the moon ; and the 




THE SPANISH MUTINY. 



165 



i66 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

savages were happy. The supply of food was 
now regular. 

Eight months passed away without any tidings 
from Mendez, when one evening a caravel showed 
in the harbor. A boat put off from the caravel 
with a message from Ovando, saying he hoped 
before long to send a ship large enough to take 
them all off. Ovando simply wanted to learn 
what was the real condition of Columbus. 

Columbus told his followers that he had refused 
to depart alone. He would share their lot and 
wait for the speedy help that was promised. The 
rebels now planned to capture the ships, and 
seize the admiral. Columbus prepared for the 
assault. A fierce fight ensued, the rebels were 
whipped, and their leaders carried as prisoners to 
the ships. 

The Indians who saw this fight were much 
puzzled. They came and looked at the dead, 
thrusting their fingers into their wounds. The 
rebels now surrendered to Columbus, who granted 
a pardon to them, but kept them on the shore. 
And so the two bands of castaways — one on ship, 
and one on shore — waited for the promised help. 



CHAPTER XV. 

FALLING FORTUNES. CONCLUSION. 

It was not till June 28, 1504, that their sight 
was gladdened by the view of the two caravels 
which had been sent — one by Mendez, the other by 
Ovando — to their relief. They boarded the ships 
at once, but bad winds made the voyage to Hayti 
a long one, and the two vessels did not reach St. 
Domingo till August 13, 1504. 

Much to the surprise of Columbus he found 
himself treated with great respect by Ovando. 
Trouble arose as to matters of law, and as to who 
was the person in full power. But Columbus was 
anxious to return to Spain, and a month after his 
arrival here he started homeward in the caravel 
which had brought him from Jamaica. 

Even his last voyage was a sad one. Care and 
sorrow followed him by land and sea. Twice his 
vessel nearly sank. His health was giving out, 
he was nearly ruined in means, and felt hopeless 
as to being further employed by the Sovereigns. 
Feeling thus, on November 7, 1504 he landed at 
Seville, in as miserable a plight as his worst enemy 
could have wished. 

167 



i68 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 

He could scarcely expect to be received Avitli 
much favor at Court. He had failed in his enter- 
prise, had lost his ships ; he brought home wonder- 
ful stories of golden lands, but no gold. 

Poor, old, infirm, he was now to receive news 
which was to deepen all his evils. He was too 
unwell to make a journey himself, so he sent his 
son Dieeo to Court to manaee his affairs for him. 
On November 26, 1 504 the great Queen (Isabella) 
died. Her death was a fatal blow to the fortunes 
of Columbus. While she lived he had something 
to hope for from her high sense of justice and her 
gratitude for his services. When she was gone, 
he was left to the justice and generosity of Fer- 
dinand. 

Columbus did not live long after his only friend. 
He spent his time now trying to induce King 
Ferdinand to make his son the ruler of the Indies, 
as it had been agreed. Ferdinand did not refuse 
outright. This breach of faith would have been 
too flagrant. But he turned the matter over to a 
Council, who, knowing the King's wishes, let the 
matter drag. 

Shortly after the arrival of Philip and his Queen 
in Spain, Columbus wrote that ''despite his gout 
he could yet do them service the like of which had 
not been seen." Whether he meant in the way of 
advice as to Indian affairs ; or thought of voyages 



FALLING FORTUNES.— CONCLUSION 169 

of further discovery, can never be known. He 
was, alas, to make but one more journey, — the 
final one to his home of rest. 

We will not linger over his death-bed. Having 
received all the sacraments of the Church, Colum- 
bus died, at Valladolid, on Ascension Day, May 
20, 1506. His remains were carried to Seville, 
and buried in the monastery of San Cuevas. His 
son Diego was also buried here. 

We are told that Ferdinand, after the death of 
Columbus, showed a sense of his merits by order- 
ing a monument to be erected to his memory, 
bearing the motto, which had been formally grant- 
ed to him by the Sovereigns : 

TO CASTILE AND LEON COLUMBUS 
GAVE A NEW WORLD. 

His remains were afterwards removed, in 1536, 
to St. Domingo, that they might rest in the New 
World he had discovered. They did not rest in 
quiet even here. After 200 years they were taken 
to the Cathedral at Havana, where they now rest. 

THE END. 



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